The Portage Education Association voted and approved the tentative agreement. On Wednesday 11-26 at 2:00 the Portage Board of Education plans to meet to vote on accepting the tentative agreement. If it passes the Board, the collective bargaining agreement will take effect. It is just a one year deal. The financial benefits will not be seen by teachers until midway through the school year, sometime in March (14th pay period for those on 26 pay periods). The dollar value of the 1% raise will only be a half percent increase in salary. Likewise if a step occurs with financial benefit it will be only 50% of the earned value. Those who had a step that wasnt associated with a financial increase saw a 3/4% improvement but will also only see half of that increase. We are glad to see immediate relief of the MESSA increases and return to a 70-30 split effective starting the first December payment. We are hoping the PPS will build a budget for 2015-16 that acknowledges steps at the start of the year and we can a definitive % of the budget upon which to negotiate. We are encouraging the Board to have a member sit in on future bargaining sessions to witness how events unfold for themselves. The PEA also is looking at an early date to start bargaining in hopes of reaching another contract for SY2015-16 before the end of June!
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 00:55:18 +0000