SL teachers ask 4.54% increase

Teacher negotiations are underway once again between the Storm Lake School Board and the Storm Lake Education Association.

The initial proposal was presented by the Association Wednesday, calling for a package of $479,571 or 4.54 percent increase to include salary, FICA and IPERS and a base salary of $29,750 on the current structure if there is no insurance increase for the 2010-11 school year. This year's base salary was $28,665.

The Association reserves the right to move dollars within the package, which may happen if insurance costs change.

The salary schedule is being based on a school year of 193 days which includes six holidays. The number of days is the same as is covered by the 2009-10 salary schedule.

Storm Lake Education Association's chief negotiator Dave Skibsted made the proposal which is based on $547,681 from increased enrollment and an anticipated 2 percent growth that the district is expecting next school year.

Any additional days would be paid per diem based on the 2009-10 salary schedule, including Teacher Salary Supplement money.

TSS monies, he explained came about after the signing of Senate File 445 into law which requires all payments authorized by law to compensate teachers be combined with their wages in order to create one salary schedule.

He pointed out that this is one of the lowest starting points that the Association has proposed in a number of years.

The Association would also like to see some language changes in the Master Contract for the 2010-11 school year, as well. Many of these language changes were proposed last year but not changed. "We still have concerns," he said on behalf of the teachers.

Personal leave is one of the areas that needs to be looked at once again.

Emergency leave for bereavement and family illness or emergency situations is another issue that the Association wants the School Board to look at.

"We need to define 'immediate family,'" Skibsted said. "Families are different now days. We need to widen the base" to include aunt, uncle, nephew and niece to the immediate family definition.

The school board will now have the chance to consider the proposal and come back with their own proposal for the Association during another open meeting. After that point, talks will continue between the entities in closed sessions until an agreement is reached.

If an agreement cannot be reached, arbitration will take place.

"I would like to say in closing that this is an initial proposal with room to negotiate," said Skibsted. "We felt we needed to set a proposal out there to get this process started and we feel we have done that. We also feel we can negotiate a settlement with the district just between these two parties. We're open to the negotiation process."