School board will discuss contracts with support staff

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 12:40 PM CST

After almost a year of negotiating, contracts with district support staff unions will be brought to the Watertown Unified School District Board of Education for approval Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Educational Service Center during its regular meeting.

The negotiations that have been going on since December 2007 include contracts for salary increases for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school year for maintenance, custodial, food service, clerical and special education paraprofessionals.

Each group received a salary increase of 3.25 percent per cell for both school years.

Clerical staff salaries for the 2008-09 school year will range from $11.34 an hour for those with no experience to $20.44 an hour for those with 15 or more years of experience.

Salary for maintenance/custodial workers for the 2008-09 school year ranges from $16.78 an hour for a custodian with no experience to $20.67 an hour for a maintenance employee with 15 or more years of experience.

ADVERTISEMENT

Special education paraprofessionals salary schedule for the 2008-09 school year range from $10.95 per hour for a paraprofessional with no experience to $14 for a paraprofessional with eight or more years of experience.

Salary schedules for the 2008-09 school year for food service staff range from $10.56 for an elementary server with no experience to $13.52 for a cook manager with five or more years of experience.

A number of changes were made to the insurance portion of the contracts. Each group received the same insurance changes, which include:

- An addition of a mandatory generic program for the prescription drug plan and a $5 co-pay for generic prescription drugs, a $15 co-pay for preferred brand name drugs and a $30 co-pay for non-preferred brand name prescription drugs.

- Contract language added to require participation of the employee and their spouse in the district's Health Risk Assessment program. Failure to participate results in 2 percent health insurance premium co-pay.

- The Lifetime Major Medical Coverage cap moved from $1 million to $2 million.

- Group Term Life Insurance moved from $20,000 to $30,000.

- Dental insurance benefit coverage capped at an annual maximum of $1,500 for dental services and a lifetime maximum of $2,000 for orthodontics.

- Payment for flu vaccinations for employees was added.

Other changes were also made to each groups sick leave, business leave, vacation days, overtime work.

In other business, the board will hear from Watertown High School social studies teacher Natalie Nienhuis who will share experiences from the student service trip to Guatemala this summer.

Presentations on two proposed field trips will be given to the board. The French department is requesting to travel to Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, April 23-26 for 15 students and two chaperones. Another group of 50 students is requesting to travel to the East coast for a Heritage Road Field trip on June 19 to July 3.

The board will be asked to approve the hiring of Jacqueline LaDew, high school limited term health teacher; Beth Mueller, high school drama and choreography; Dianne Rumler, high school special education paraprofessional.

A number of policies that have had changes made by the board's policy review committee will be up for approval. Those policies include job description of the superintendent, student scholarships, personnel records and teacher personnel folder. A policy about homebound instruction will have its first reading.

Board members will also be asked to approve resolutions regarding the referendum results, the 2009-10 school calendar, the 2007-08 district audit, and summer school 2009.

A closed session will be held prior to the regular meeting for board members to listen to an appeal of disciplinary action of a staff member.