NCSD teacher salaries determined through mediation

Last week’s announcements by Newton Community School District budget administrators about budget cuts did involve some autonomous decisions from the district, but its biggest salary expenditure increase for Fiscal 2017 did not come entirely from district leaders.

After exchanging an initial proposal and counter-proposal publicly in early March, the district and the Newton Community Educators Association proceeded through a common closed-door steps of union contract negotiations. The teachers and the district went to mediation as one of the steps of resolving the differences it had with the district in reaching a settlement, which ended with teachers receiving a 3.25 overall compensation (salary plus benefits) increase for the 2016-17 school year.

The teachers opened with a 6.5 percent pay increase proposal. The district countered with 2 percent, and the 3.25 percent increase was the compromise issued after arbitration hearings.

The increase adds about $560,000 to the district’s expenses for 2016-17 for teachers alone, while the Iowa legislature and Gov. Terry Branstad only provided school districts with a 2.25 percent increase in funding, which meant $178,000 in new money to Newton. That meant the NCSD would be be spending about $400,000 more to pay teachers in the next school year, before contracts with other groups, such as custodians and secretaries, could even be addressed in direct, non-arbitration negotiations.

All salaries, by Iowa Code, are paid from general funds. These cannot be mixed with penny-tax SAVE funds or PPEL expenses, which can only be used for the types of construction or remodeling happening this year at the former Hy-Vee West building or included in the Berg Complex bond proposal.

At last week’s regular NCSD board meeting, Business Director Gayle Isaac pointed out salaries account for about 82.5 percent of all general-fund expenses. Newton Schools spends about $20 million of its $38 million budget on salaries, and announced some cuts last week to save about $200,000 from the non-personnel portion of the general fund, including color printing costs and campus and classroom budgets.

“With the cuts we’re making, that 82.5 percent is going to go up,” Isaac said. “As we cut out things that were in that other 17.5 percent, salaries will make up an even larger fraction of general expenses.”

The increase to teacher compensation added $603 to the “generator base,” used to calculate how much each teacher makes before adding in other factors like endorsements or seniority. That means every new teacher to the district will make $603 more in 2016-17 in Newton than they would have made in 2015-16.

Increases for other groups only came to a total of $230,000. Administrators will receive a total of about $37,000 more in 2016-17 based on a 2.25 percent increase in line with the state funding elevation. The group technically receiving the biggest raise at more than 4 percent — secretaries — will make a collective $34,000 more next year, so their increase hardly requires the largest overall adjustment.

NCSD Superintendent Bob Callaghan said the teacher contracts were the only ones that involved the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board.

“Only the NCEA contract included mediation with PERB,” Callaghan said. "We did not go to arbitration with any group."

This is the first year in recent memory a public meeting was held to unveil initial proposals for Newton teachers union contracts.

Drew Bracken, a representative of the Des Moines law firm of Ahlers & Cooney, PC, led much of public discussion in March on behalf of the district. Callaghan, Isaac, Director of Personnel Laura Selover and NCSD Board Vice President Travis Padget were also present.

Teachers Alison Grier, Barb Hackworth and Lucinda Sinclair represented the NCEA. About 99 percent of NCEA’s membership voted to ratify the final contract.

The district and its employees have only been able to forge one-year agreements the past few years, due largely to the legislature only approving one-year funding increases, so the cycle of negotiations will have to be repeated in the spring of 2017.

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com