JCTA, board reach a deal

Jay Schools and the Jay Classroom Teachers Association has reached agreement on a 2014-15 contract, even though last year’s contract is still embroiled in a legal battle.
School board members unanimously approved the new pact at a special meeting Tuesday, while members of the JCTA approved the contract Aug. 27.
“Thank God for local people,” said board president Mike Masters. “It’s awfully nice to get this taken care of.”
The contract settlement was in stark contrast to last year’s negotiations with the teachers’ union, which led to an impasse, fact-finding, a ruling in the school corporation’s favor by the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board and ultimately to a lawsuit by the JCTA.
That lawsuit is still pending in Marion County Superior Court.
Attorneys for the JCTA and the Indiana State Teachers Association are challenging the ruling by the IEERB because it sets a number of precedents in case law which could affect other school corporations.
“That is strange,” acknowledged JCTA president Paul Szymczak. “That (legal) process will work itself out.”
The new agreement calls for creating a pool of about $246,000 that will be distributed for base salary increases equally to effective and highly effective teachers. The pay increases will take effect on the first pay period of calendar year 2015 and will be paid out over the balance of the contract.
It also calls for health insurance contributions to be no less than 111 percent of the 2014 state rate.
“That’s standard with last year,” said superintendent Tim Long.
The contract also spells out how any state of Indiana Performance Grant would be distributed. Under the contract, effective and highly effective teachers would be compensated equally, taxes and benefits related to the performance grant funds would come from the grant and the grant would be pooled and distributed equally among all members of the bargaining unit.
“We’re pleased with the process,” said Szymczak. “The school corporation can live with it, and we can live with it. … We all need to be healthy going forward.”
“I thought the negotiations went very smoothly,” said Long, calling the talks “productive, substantive, and friendly.”
Greg Wellman was the board’s lead representative on the negotiating committee.