Madison Board Of Education, Madison Education Association Agree On Three-Year Contract

This information was provided by the Madison Board of Education:

The Madison Board of Education and the Madison Education Association (MEA) have negotiated a settlement of a new three-year contract that that continues to reflect the challenges of the current economic times. The MEA bargaining unit includes the membership of 321 certified teachers.  The new three-year contract will take effect on July 1, 2013; the first day of the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

 In the first year of the contract, there is no general wage increase and qualified employees will receive an appropriate, incremental advancement on the step schedule based upon experience. Those teachers who are above maximum step will receive a stipulated 1% increment. Year two of the agreement includes a general wage increase of 2.77% with no step advancement whereas, the third year reflects the same terms and conditions as year-one of the contract.

The budgetary impact of the three-year settlement is offset by cost savings achieved in newly negotiated changes in health insurance provisions and associated employee payroll cost-shares. The teachers will increase their payroll cost share to 18.5% in year 1, 19% in year 2 and 20% in year 3.  Plan design changes include employees contributing a greater share for co-pays for home and office visits, hospitalizations, outpatient surgery, emergency room visits and high-cost diagnostic procedures. The net new monies required to support this contract, inclusive of health benefits, represent a budget increase of 1.84% ($471,059) for the first year of the contract, 2.10% ($547,074) for year two and 2.0% ($539,279) in year three. When compared to other like contracts negotiated on a state- wide basis in 2012, the Madison contract reflects the average settlement of the comparable data.

“The new contract is an equitable settlement that reflects today’s economic times.” said John Dean, chair of the Board’s Personnel Committee. “We thank the teachers for recognizing that difficult times call for new understandings. This is a settlement that respects the needs of all parties: the Madison tax payers, the teachers and the school district.”

“Both the Board and the teachers union engaged in a reasonable process, coming to the negotiations table ready to listen and come to terms that are cognizant of current economic conditions. The settlement offers wage advancement for the teachers while also providing benefit-related cost savings and long-term cost avoidance for the town,” said Board of Education Chair Debra Frey.