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SWCS reaches agreement on contract
(by Kim Lunsford, staff writer - June 14, 2011)
The South-Western Board of Education has reached an agreement with the school district’s administrators.
On June 13, the board voted 4-1 to enter into a new contract with the South-Western Administrators Association (SWAA).
Board member Jo Ellen Myers was the lone dissenting vote for the new contract that will take effect July 1, 2011 and run through June 30, 2013.
“Because it is a two year agreement,” Myers said. “I would be agreeable to a one year, but not a two year.”
The agreement begins with the 2012-13 school year. It requires all new administrative employees and current administrative employees who opt in to advance in their classification based on performance in the previous school year. Following a two year base salary freeze, administrative employees will receive an increase of one half percent in base salary for the 2011-12 school year and an increase of one percent for the 2012-13 school year.
“We are proud of our administrative staff and their willingness to lead the way during these financially difficult times,” said district treasurer High Garside.
Added Randy Reisling, board vice president, who also served as a member of the board’s negotiating team, “I believe this contract is very similar to those of OAPSE and SWEA except that it’s only the last two years due to the fact that our administrators had agreed to a contract last year.”
A third, unique point of the agreement beginning in the 2012-13 school year, is that any new administrative employee will participate in a compensation structure that has a merit based component. Those current administrative employees will have the option to participate as well.
“I think this is an exciting turn of events and something we look forward to implementing over the next year,” Reisling said. “We are looking forward to implementing a system that rewards results and experience. While the details still need to be worked out, this contract highlights the desire of our administrators to work cooperatively with our board of education to create a system that rewards performance.”
“We are excited about the possibilities that this agreement gives us as we continue to put reforms into place that support our work to improve student learning,” Superintendent Dr. Bill Wise said. “We’ll see how this works as we begin to implement.”
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