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The Nugget Newspaper
Sisters, Oregon
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The contents of the on-line edition of The Nugget represent a selection among the stories that appear in the weekly print edition.

Schools work on teachers' contract
By Jim Cornelius

As the Redmond School District's contract negotiation with teachers blows up into a contentious scrap over salaries and benefits, the Sisters School District has been quietly working on new contracts for its employees.

The atmosphere here is considerably different.

"It's not an adversarial situation and I've worked hard to keep it that way," said Kelly Powell, President of the Sisters Education Association, representing the teachers.

Powell is a teacher at Sisters Elementary School.

"I think probably the biggest advantage we have is the close relationship we have with (Superintendent Steve) Swisher and the administration," Powell said. "There's a lot of trust there."

Everybody involved in negotiations recognizes that the school district is financially strapped. The district has laid off teachers and administrative staff and delayed the start of the school year by four days in the face of budget cuts.

The district has nearly reached an agreement with its classified (non-teaching) employees, Swisher reported.

While some details of language and salary schedule for positions remained to be ironed out last week, Swisher said, "we ended up with an agreement that was pretty satisfying to everyone, that didn't involve any new money on the base."

Perhaps the most difficult problem facing both the teachers and the Sisters School Board is the provision of health care for employees.

The school district pays part of the cost of health insurance with a cap of $539. Employees pay the rest. Their out-of-pocket costs skyrocketed this year, jumping $140.91 per month to a total of $224.76.

Recognizing this heavy blow to the employees' pocketbooks, the board last month decided to pay an additional $50 per month per employee for the insurance.

According to Swisher, the board had budgeted some money in anticipation of contract negotiations and "the board chose to use some of it to mitigate this problem."

At the same time, the SEA went shopping for a better health plan and ended up switching from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to PacificSource.

According to Powell, the switch has helped at least some employees who were paying for more insurance coverage than they needed. With a new, more flexible plan, "people aren't over-insured," Powell said.

The boost from the school board was appreciated by teachers.

"When we start negotiating again, of course, insurance cap will be part of the discussion," Powell said. "But it was pretty nice of the board and the district to help us out."

Whether a salary increase is in the offing remains to be seen. Sisters starting teacher salary of $26,458 lags behind other local districts. Redmond's starting pay is at about $29,000.

Sisters teachers have a goal of achieving parity with Redmond, Powell said.

"But that, of course, is a long-term plan," he said. "We're not expecting it to happen in a year."

Swisher said the board recognizes that Sisters teachers are paid less than their local counterparts and face higher housing costs in Sisters.

"Cost of living is a tough one in Sisters, where you'd like to have your teachers living," he said.

But the ability to pay all comes down to funding, which has been in short supply.

However, Swisher noted, "even with our cuts, we still have a minimal amount in our budget in anticipation of increased costs in benefits and salaries."

Powell noted that the collaborative atmosphere between the school district and the teachers extends to the community.

He said teachers and other employees are very grateful to the community for their support of the schools -- particularly in approving some $680,000 in local option funds that are now keeping the schools afloat in the statewide funding crisis.

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