W-B Area CTC administrators get new deal

March 25--PLAINS TWP. -- The Joint Operating Committee that runs the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technology Center approved a new, four-year agreement with administrators that included a $4,000 additional raise to "any employee" with a Ph.D. or Doctor of Education. That clause covers only one person: Assistant Principal Anthony Guariglia.

JOC member Gene Mancini questioned the largess, noting the committee had not asked Guariglia to obtain an advanced degree and that he had the degree prior to the negotiation of the agreement, known as the Act 93 agreement, named after the state law covering compensation for education administrators who do not belong to a union.

Mancini cast the lone no vote against the agreement.

Mancini had been on the committee's negotiating team, but that team was restructured in December after new members took their seats and elected John Quinn as president. The JOC is comprised of representatives from the school boards of the five districts sending students to the center, with Wilkes-Barre Area School District having five of the 11 seats because it sends the most students.

Mancini is the lone representative from Crestwood. Quinn is from Wilkes-Barre Area. Hanover Area has only one member, while Pittston Area and Greater Nanticoke Area have two each.

The new negotiating committee has two members from Wilkes-Barre Area and two from Pittston Area school boards. Guariglia is president of the Pittston Area board.

JOC Solicitor Jack Dean said the additional $4,000 for a doctorate was new to the agreement, and outlined other changes from the document it replaces:

--The new agreement is for three years, while the old one covered three.

--The previous agreement gave all those covered a $1,500 raise the first year and third year, with a pay freeze the second year. The new agreement breaks down employees and raises, giving annual raises of $1,550 to the principal (Frank Majikes) and assistant principal (the $4,000 is on top of any other raises), $1,450 to all other 12-month employees, $1,300</money> to all 11-month employees, and $1,200 to all 10-month employees.

--Health insurance deductibles increase from $250 single coverage and $500 family to $350 and $700. Current employees remain eligible for 50 percent of the cost of insurance if they opt out of coverage, but opt-out payment to new hires is capped at $2,500. New employees must also pay 1 percent of their premium the first two years and 2 percent the second two.

--The previous agreement called for re-opening health care coverage negotiations if member school districts negotiated new contracts with professional staff that included employees premium sharing. The new agreement requires those covered by it to automatically pay an average of contributions among the five sending districts if three of those five districts negotiate premium sharing into their contracts, or if Wilkes-Barre Area and one other district do so.

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