Warrick County School Corp. holds required public hearing on tentative teachers’ agreement; board to vote Oct. 27

Warrick County School Corp. presented a tentative teachers’ agreement at a statutorily required public hearing on Oct. 20, outlining a revised compensation model, changes to insurance contributions and other contract language; the board is scheduled to vote on the agreement on Monday, Oct. 27.

Tully, a district staff member and the meeting presenter, opened the hearing by saying, “This is the tentative agreement hearing, which is required statutorily. It's gotta be at least 72 hours before the board votes on it.” Tully then summarized the negotiated terms and answered board members’ questions.

The agreement repackages the district’s previous salary model into five parts and reallocates how a pay raise is calculated. Tully described the main components as (1) a portion tied to summative evaluations, (2) a portion tied to meeting students’ academic needs, (3) an incremental step (for teachers not at the top of the scale), (4) experience-and-degree dollar supplements, and (5) a $100 stipend for anyone who adds an early-literacy certification to their license. Under the proposed model, teachers not at the top of the scale would receive a compensation factor equal to 5.3% (made up of evaluation and increment components) plus any experience/degree dollars and the $100 early-literacy stipend where applicable. Tully illustrated the calculation with a $60,000 example and said the district’s average teacher salary after the model would be about $68,495.

Key numeric terms presented by the district staff included: - Increment for teachers not at the cap: 3.5% (contract base × 3.5%). - Evaluation and meeting-academic-needs components: about 0.9% each of base pay (combined examples shown as 1.8%). - Experience/degree supplements: $60 per year of service for employees with a master’s degree (applied up to 18 years) and $48 per year for employees with a bachelor’s degree (described as 80% of the master’s amount), applied in addition to percentage increases. - Early-literacy stipend: $100 for those who add the endorsement to their license. - Salary caps shown as roughly $73,000 for bachelor’s-degree lane and $92,000 for master’s-degree lane. - Beginning teacher salaries shown as $48,000 (bachelor’s) and $50,545 (master’s) for new hires. - Average base salary increase presented as $3,272 and average pay-raise figures given in the presentation at about 5.2% (the presenter also noted a 5.02% figure elsewhere in the materials).

Tully also described health-insurance cost pressures and the district’s response. He said Anthem initially proposed premium increases that would have raised district claims funding by nearly $3.5 million before bargaining; the district said negotiations reduced that to a minimum increase of about $1.4 million in premiums. To reduce the employee share of that increase, the district is raising its employer contribution to insurance by $600 for single plans and $1,200 for member/spouse/member-children/family plans; Tully said the district absorbed roughly $600,000 of the increase so the net hit to employees on average would be “just slightly less than a thousand dollars.”

Extra-curricular activity (ECA) pay schedules were not increased; the district said it directed available dollars toward base salary so more teachers would benefit. The robotics stipend was described as grandfathered at the current rate for existing positions; hires into robotics after the agreement would receive a new rate.

Board members asked clarifying questions about the averages, salary distribution and timing. Tully said about 140 employees were at the top of the master’s-degree scale and explained why averages and medians can show different percentage changes. On timing, Tully said certified (school-year) employees’ pay would be made retroactive to the beginning of the school year, fiscal-year employees would be retroactive to the start of their fiscal year, and calendar-year employees would take effect immediately; retro payroll adjustments will be processed in November across two pay periods.

Tully thanked the Warrick County Teachers Association bargaining team by name: Ben Wallace (bargaining chair), Darlene Short (WCTA president), Lisa Sharp, Sam Schnur, Jameson Foley, Sarah Elliman, Chelsea Steele (also noted as Chelsea Royster), Mr. Bertram, Mrs. Kemp and Mr. Schmidt. Tully characterized the negotiations as productive and collaborative.

No formal vote on the tentative agreement occurred at the hearing. The board is scheduled to consider the agreement for action at its Monday, Oct. 27 meeting. There were no public commenters at this hearing.