Polson school board, union reach tentative agreement

Ethan Smith

Leader Staff

After 15 hours of mediation on Tuesday, the Polson school board and teachers union reached a tentative agreement, which although needs to be finalized, should close the books on months of negotiations between the two parties.

Polson teachers union president Marlin Lewis announced at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday morning that the two sides had come to terms on all of the contentious issues, including raises for last year and this school year, health insurance contributions, seniority issues and retirement incentives.

According to Lewis, teachers will receive a three percent raise for the 2004-2005 school year on top of base pay, an additional $35 toward health insurance for that year, and full retroactivity pay related to those increases. Also, there will be a four percent raise and additional $35 contribution toward health insurance, with full retroactivity, for this year, he said.

The district's Progressive Corrective Evaluation process will stay in place, as the school board had hoped, although the process will continue for another year for underperforming teachers — a concession to the teacher's union.

"We are satisfied because we believe it makes better teachers," Lewis said, noting that PCE language has been in district contracts for about 25 years.

Teachers with seniority will not be given preference for in-district transfers over teachers with less experience, an item the board had fought for with the explanation that they should be able to hire the "best fit" for the job, not necessarily the person with the most years of experience.

"Seniority does not necessarily guarantee a teacher a transfer," Lewis said.

However, the board and union reached an agreement on retirement incentives, sick leave, and "buy down" and "buy out" incentives — a major sticking point for teachers.

"That was a very important issue," Lewis said, refering to retirement incentives.

According to Lewis, a tentative agreement means it is not finalized until both sides have had a chance to read full-text copies with all related salary and benefit calculations contained in them. At that point, the teachers union and board must both vote to ratify the contracts, and a vote of "no" from either side negates the agreement.

"I feel very confident the teachers will agree to this. Hopefully the board will call a special session to ratify this. They have in the past," Lewis said.