MONROE - Teachers in the Monroe school district will receive a 2.07 percent total base wage increase this school year after the Monroe school board unanimously approved a new one-year contract Monday, Nov. 11.
Superintendent Cory Hirsbrunner and Monroe Education Association co-presidents Sherri Hendrickson and James Cassidy issued a joint press release Monday citing the new contract with a 2.07 percent total base wage increase also accounts for a 1.29 percent increase in all cells on the salary schedule and will allow for step movement and a new base salary of $32,625. The contract between the district and the MEA will run from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014. Teachers will get retroactive back pay to the start of the school year.
The contract will cost the district $294,000 based on the 2012-13 district staff and doesn't include any savings from staff changes and retirements. The increase is budgeted for in the 2013-14 budget, Hirsbrunner said.
According to the joint press release, the starting base salary is a $415 increase compared to the previous starting salary of $32,210.
Teachers in the district were still working under a previous two-year contract that expired June 30 that included a salary freeze and was agreed to before Gov. Scott Walker's Act 10 law that curtailed collective bargaining rights for government workers.
The contract was four months in the making. It's the first contract the district's Employee Relations Committee has negotiated with teachers since Act 10 and the law limited teachers to only being able to negotiate wages and not language. The contact has to be a one-year deal and the wage increase can't be more than the annual Consumer Price Index, which was set by the state at 2.07 percent.
Hendrickson and Cassidy said the MEA Negotiations team and the district worked hard to get a new contract under the new circumstances.
"The teaching staff have had their take-home pay significantly reduced due to a voluntary wage freeze for the past two years, lost wages due to increased required contributions to the Wisconsin Retirement System, health insurance premiums and an increase in work hours," Hendrickson and Cassidy said in the news release.
Superintendent Cory Hirsbrunner and Monroe Education Association co-presidents Sherri Hendrickson and James Cassidy issued a joint press release Monday citing the new contract with a 2.07 percent total base wage increase also accounts for a 1.29 percent increase in all cells on the salary schedule and will allow for step movement and a new base salary of $32,625. The contract between the district and the MEA will run from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014. Teachers will get retroactive back pay to the start of the school year.
The contract will cost the district $294,000 based on the 2012-13 district staff and doesn't include any savings from staff changes and retirements. The increase is budgeted for in the 2013-14 budget, Hirsbrunner said.
According to the joint press release, the starting base salary is a $415 increase compared to the previous starting salary of $32,210.
Teachers in the district were still working under a previous two-year contract that expired June 30 that included a salary freeze and was agreed to before Gov. Scott Walker's Act 10 law that curtailed collective bargaining rights for government workers.
The contract was four months in the making. It's the first contract the district's Employee Relations Committee has negotiated with teachers since Act 10 and the law limited teachers to only being able to negotiate wages and not language. The contact has to be a one-year deal and the wage increase can't be more than the annual Consumer Price Index, which was set by the state at 2.07 percent.
Hendrickson and Cassidy said the MEA Negotiations team and the district worked hard to get a new contract under the new circumstances.
"The teaching staff have had their take-home pay significantly reduced due to a voluntary wage freeze for the past two years, lost wages due to increased required contributions to the Wisconsin Retirement System, health insurance premiums and an increase in work hours," Hendrickson and Cassidy said in the news release.