North Pocono School Board approves teacher contract [The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.]

June 13--COVINGTON TWP. -- The North Pocono School Board approved a five-year contract with its teachers union by a 6-2 vote on Wednesday but still refuses to release all of the details.

School officials provided many of the terms, but the impact of the agreement on copays and deductibles for the North Pocono Education Association is still unknown.

Board President Paul Kowalski said the details will be available after the union's ratification vote, which was moved to Friday.

Superintendent Bryan McGraw provided a summary document at Wednesday's meeting that shows the association agreed to a six-month salary freeze for the first half of 2012-13. Then, members advance a step on the salary scale, earning an additional 1.75 percent for the rest of the year through retroactive pay to Jan. 1.

The remaining four years of the contract, including step-raises, increase teacher salaries 3.5 percent per year. The breakdown is step-raises plus a 0.75 percent raise in the second year, a 0.54 percent raise in the third year, a 0.56 percent raise in the fourth year and a 0.58 percent raise in the fifth year.

The deal does not require teachers to contribute toward health insurance premiums, but Mr. McGraw's documents estimate $1.1 million to $1.4 million in health care savings over the life of the deal. The raises will cost $2.1 million.

The deal eliminates Blue Care Traditional insurance. All eligible members will be covered by Blue Cross Preferred Provider Coverage.

Prior to the vote, from which board member Jerry Maglio was absent, school board member Angela Cobb described the agreement as a compromise "both sides can live with."

Members William Burke and Ralph Colo dissented. Mr. Colo called the agreement unsustainable, given the district's financial condition, and he feared the contract would lead to furloughs and building closures.

Mr. Burke said "it is unfair" to ask "people who can barely afford to pay their health care to pay the kind of benefits that we're about to give out in largesse to our association."

School board member Nicholas Butler said keeping taxes low is not worth having "a bad taste in the mouth of the teachers going on strike" and the "black eye" the district would suffer from continued labor strife.

Contact the writer: kwind@timesshamrock.com, @kwindTT on Twitter

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