{"id":10102,"date":"2011-06-30T04:01:35","date_gmt":"2011-06-30T09:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=10102"},"modified":"2011-06-30T04:15:12","modified_gmt":"2011-06-30T09:15:12","slug":"vwcs-board-teachers-ink-new-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/06\/30\/vwcs-board-teachers-ink-new-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"VWCS board, teachers ink new contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

The Van Wert City Board of Education has approved a new three-year contract with teachers that both sides said was a fair one, considering the current economic times.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur teachers have just been wonderful,\u201d Superintendent Ken Amstutz said. \u201cThey understand; they get what we\u2019re up against, as a district \u2026 as a community \u2026 they understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chuck Rollins, president of the Van Wert Federation Teachers, also said he felt the new agreement was fair, adding that he was pleased this year\u2019s negotiations were amicable. He also commended the board of education for its stance on contract talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing we wanted to do was get into a long, drawn-out argument over where we should be contractually speaking,\u201d Rollins noted. \u201cWe wanted to stay positive (and) refocus our energy on where it\u2019s supposed to be: kids in the community and getting them ready for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we really appreciated was the board’s willingness to look at our requests and to really \u00a0meet us with a deal that we think was fair,” Rollins said. “We tried to lower our sights in what we thought, considering our financial picture, where we’re at in the district.”<\/p>\n

Both the board and VWFT unanimously approved the new three-year contract, which runs through the 2013-2014 school year.<\/p>\n

Under the new agreement, teachers will receive a 1-percent increase in the first year of the contract, but only a half-step increase for seniority purposes, with a 1-percent pay hike and a return to a full step for seniority in the second year. Negotiations will be reopened in the third year for salary purposes only.<\/p>\n

Pay increases for educational attainment remain unchanged, while teachers involved in senior projects will receive a 2-percent stipend for the extra work.<\/p>\n

A number of concessions were made by teachers in the area of health insurance, with Amstutz noting that the non-insurance incentive was cut in half \u2013 to $6,400 \u2013 while teachers will pay 15 percent of their dental insurance costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe teachers worked with us heavily on insurance,\u201d Amstutz said, adding that the board and administration appreciated the cooperation.<\/p>\n

The biggest concession, as far as the superintendent was concerned, is the teachers\u2019 agreement that all new hires must take the high-deductible health insurance plan. Amstutz added that the board and administration \u201csweetened\u201d the incentive for existing teachers to also take the higher deductible plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will save us money and save our insurance consortium money,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Amstutz said he feels the agreement, combined with austerity measures already in place and others planned over the next two years, should allow the district to weather the combination of pending state budget cuts and revenue decreases because of the weakened economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel comfortable about where we\u2019re at,\u201d the superintendent said, adding that cost-cutting measures include not replacing three of the 13 teachers who retired this year, as well as cutting two more teaching positions when the new grades 1-5 elementary building is completed and another two positions the following year.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s taking on more of the load, and we\u2019re very appreciative of our teachers for that,\u201d the superintendent said.<\/p>\n

Amstutz said the board and administration would now move toward securing a new contract agreement with classified employees, who have no union representation, noting he feels that provisions of that contract would be similar to what teachers are receiving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor The Van Wert City Board of Education has approved a new three-year contract with teachers that both sides said was a fair one, considering the current economic times. \u201cOur teachers have just been wonderful,\u201d Superintendent Ken Amstutz said. \u201cThey understand; they get what we\u2019re up against, as a district \u2026 as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 07:10:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}