Batavia teachers compromise on next year's raises

Batavia teachers are giving up part of a salary increase and adjusting their health insurance benefits to help save up to 60 jobs in the 2010-11 school year.

The concessions are valued at $2.3 million, according to school district and Batavia Education Association officials. They are intended to help the district avoid a projected budget deficit that officials believe could be as high as $6 million, depending on how much state aid the district loses.

The union approved the plan 366-32 last week, and the school board accepted it Monday night.

The teachers are in the middle of a five-year contract that expires in 2012.

They were due to get 3.1 percent pay increases this year. Instead, they will get a 2.41 percent increase.

They will also allow the district to use some of the health insurance money that had been set aside in previous years for wellness programs to be used for other expenses.

The union had been looking at adding more wellness programs next year, such as health classes and issuing pedometers to encourage people to move more. Such programs have improved employee health, which helped keep insurance premium increases down, said Tony Malay, the BEA president.

"But we feel strongly preserving the quality of education for the kids is first and foremost," Malay said.

In return, the district agreed to cut no more than 11 full-time-equivalent positions, he said.

Malay said the BEA authorized its leaders to offer to reopen the contract last spring. "We knew this (the budget problems) was coming last year," Malay said.

The district believes that without the concessions, it would have had to lay off up to 60 teachers. Class sizes would have risen to more than 30 students per class in the elementary schools and 35 in the middle schools and high schools, according to a prepared statement released by the district.

Malay said the union has "a very collaborative relationship" with the district's administrators and school board, particularly Superintendent Jack Barshinger and President Ron Link. Teachers and union leaders were invited to attend meetings with the district's financial planner, for example, and Barshinger spoke to employees in the fall about the district's financial situation.

"We have some very difficult years ahead of us," Barshinger said. "The collaboration by the BEA and other employee groups will be critical to preserving the high quality of education that we deliver to the community of Batavia."

The concessions are only for the 2010-11 year. "But we all understand we could very well be in the same position next year," Malay said.