School district, CEA talks frozen

PALMER -- Within the same month that the Mat-Su Borough School District declared contract talks with its teachers at an impasse, negotiations with its more than 600 classified employees have also come to a standstill. In the meantime, a third union -- the Mat-Su Principals Association -- continues to ask that its contract be reopened.

After two days at the bargaining table with the Classified Employees Association last week, the district announced that talks were deadlocked. The CEA represents non-certified staff such as custodians, receptionists, tutors and those who work in warehouse and nutrition, among other areas.

"We are in much the same situation as we are with our teachers," said Kim Floyd, public information specialist with the district. She said the district's offer has not been an issue of not valuing employees.

"It's an issue of money," she said. "We need assistance from the state. We are at the bottom of our barrel."

Neither the union nor the school district can discuss the details of the offers and counter-offers, as talks were closed to the public by mutual agreement at the beginning of negotiations.

CEA president Sheila Dickman said the union has since asked the district to make the negotiations public, but district officials say they are standing by the original agreement.

"We have nothing to hide … we're bargaining in good faith," Dickman told the Frontiersman last week. "Anytime the district wants to go back to the bargaining table, we're ready … We were so hopeful that by the end of the week we'd have an agreement."

Dickman said it seems probable that the same federal mediator being called in to assist in teacher negotiations will also be used for the CEA contract talks.

Earlier this month, the district declared it had reached an impasse with its teachers' union. Because both sides agreed from the beginning to keep the negotiations public, they were able to discuss the specifics.

District officials said they offered teachers a salary schedule similar to that of the last contract, which includes "step increases" awarded for each year the employee is in the district and for a certain number of hours of professional development. The district did not, however, offer a 3-percent cost-of-living increase that would cost an additional $1.6 million.

Referring to the offer as a "salary freeze," teacher union president Barbara Morris said it was similar to not budgeting for increased utility costs from one year to the next. District officials, however, say they only have so much money to work with and that it has to be divvied up among all school needs.

Floyd said district administration is hopeful the Legislature will increase per-student funding for next year, which would bring more money into Mat-Su schools.

"But we can't assume we'll have that money," she said.

While talks between the district and its teachers and classified employees are stalled, principals have been asking throughout the school year to return to the bargaining table to discuss health

insurance. The cost to individual principals for health

insurance has more than

doubled, from $125 per month to $258.

"Our membership is taking a major hit," MSPA president and Wasilla High principal Dwight Probasco told the school board last week.

Following an executive session to discuss contract negotiations at last week's meeting, school board member Linda Menard moved to reopen the principals' contract, but the motion died for lack of a second.

Earlier in the meeting, board member Larry DeVilbiss said he was willing to talk about health insurance with the union but was not ready to officially go back to the bargaining table.

"I'm not willing to reopen negotiations … when we've got two other negotiations going on," DeVilbiss said.

DeVilbiss said the district and board are working with employee groups to try to come up with a better health insurance plan for everyone.

Board President Dan Contini told the Frontiersman that the board wanted to delay a decision on opening the principals' contract.

"It's on hold. It's not a done deal yet," he said. "We're waiting for a bigger picture," he said.