Polson teachers retire, contract talks continue

Two Polson teachers whose retirement status was in limbo last month will be able to retire with full benefits, although the overall negotiations between the district and the teacher's union are still ongoing.

Polson school board members and union officials were still negotiating Tuesday night, and results of those negotiations weren't available by press time, but longtime teachers Mary Lou Ratzburg and Dave Smith were able to work out an agreement with the district after the teachers filed a grievance over their retirement options at the end of the school year.

At the April board meeting, board members denied the teachers' requests for retirement because both teachers had asked in their retirement letters that they be given the full benefits package outlined in the last signed contract between the district and the union. Ratzburg and Smith also stipulated that they be allowed to return if a contract with lower retirement benefits was signed over the summer. At the time, board members felt both teachers were, in effect, negotiating independently with the district, which would violate the agreement between the union and the district.

"There was some uncertainty about what Dave and Mary Lou had written into their original retirement letters — a request to honor the language in (section) 7.7 as it was written at the time (in the 2003-2004 contract)," superintendent Sue McCormick said earlier this week. "The board talked and talked and finally the board was persuaded to let them retire with those benefits."

Ratzburg and Smith filed a grievance against the district, and had their grievance heard at the June board meeting. Several dozen teachers showed up to show their support after picketing outside the district administration building earlier that day to protest a lack of a signed contract for both the 2004-2005 year and the coming year. The school district had two weeks to respond to the grievance, and the board agreed in an emergency June 29 meeting to accept their retirement requests.

"I'm happy. That's basically all we asked for — to retire under the contract that we had worked under," Ratzburg said.

Smith did not return calls seeking comment. Ratzburg said she's glad she and Smith can focus on their retirement, and that she hopes the resolution of her situation will help the district and union focus on the larger task at hand.

"I think the negotiators worked long and hard to get a contract settled and it just didn't happen," Ratzburg said of the ongoing talks this spring and summer. "The next thing is to get a contract for last year and this coming year."

Smith and Ratzburg had more than 75 years of combined experience in the Polson School District, and are symbolic of the challenges facing the district in its current negotiations. The language in section 7.7 provided for lump-sum payouts to retiring teachers, often totaling thousands of dollars per teacher, and the district is faced with a large chunk of teachers with significant amounts of experience who are near retirement age at the same time it is faced with rising health care costs.

Just how much of those retirement costs will be borne by the district has not been worked out yet, but McCormick said both sides have made key concessions in an effort to reach an agreement. One option would be to provide financial incentives to teachers during their careers based on attendance and length of service rather than having to cough up a lump-sum payment upon retirement, McCormick said.

"The district paid out significant amounts of money to retirees from 1999 to 2005. It (retirement benefits) has been an obstacle to negotiations until the teachers conceded the language in 7.7," earlier this month in an effort to reach a settlement, McCormick said.

Negotiations with other district employees, including the Polson Classified Education Association, which includes education assistants, bus drivers and custodians, were rescheduled for next month after a PCEA officials was unable to make the July 11 meeting. A PCEA grievance hearing was also on the school board agenda, but will be heard at the Aug. 8 meeting.

However, the school board was able to close negotiations with non-represented personnel, agreeing to give a 4 percent cost-of-living increase and a $.50/hour raise for any employee who has worked in the district for more than five years. Salaries were also adjusted, bringing them in line with similar salaries from around the state, board member Joe Hovenkotter told the board.

"This was an honor … to represent the community and talk to these folks. They love the school district and they seem to love the board. It was a pleasure," Hovenkotter said of that negoation process.