Dowagiac teachers will be considering ratification Monday of a two-year contract reached Wednesday evening and accepted Thursday morning by the Board of Education.

“We did come to agreement,” Superintendent Dr. Mark Daniel briefed the school board Sept. 8 in the Wolverine administration building conference room.

“Knowing that we’re all struggling with finances and the budget,” Daniel said, “what we’ve come up with is the salary schedule shall reflect no increase for the 2011-2012 school year. Teachers who are not entitled to a step increment in the ’11-’12 school year will receive a one-time off-schedule payment of $600 to be paid by June 30, 2012.”

That provision affects approximately 38 teachers, he said.

In the 2012-2013 school year, Daniel said, “For each student over 2,430 enrolled as of the first student count date, the (Dowagiac Education Association) membership will receive an additional .2-percent increase on the salary schedule up to an additional 1 percent. If the per-pupil foundation allowance for 2012-2013 is less than the per-pupil foundation allowance for 2011, not including our best practices incentives, which is $100 per student which we are working hard to attain … as of Sept. 1, 2012. in other words, if we would have a budget reduction of $100 or more, we would go back into negotiation of compensation again. Steps will not necessarily be automatic. For both parties, we’ll reopen salary negotiations to find cost savings before steps will be considered.”

“However,” Daniel continued, “the 2012-2013 salary schedule will not be lower than the 2011 salary schedule, which has stayed frozen the same as last year. We’re trying to tie in incentives to student enrollment. And, if we do have the increase in student enrollment to cover that additional salary increase, we would consider it. That was agreed to by both sides.”

Also, Daniel said, “We have continued with the same premiums toward their insurance benefits. Beginning Sept. 30, 2011, through June 30, 2012, it will remain the same. We’ve changed the date a bit (the second year), from July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013, the reason being is that is truly the end of our calendar year. We do know we have retiring teachers, and they would continue to have their coverage through Aug. 31. We’d also like to reward our teachers from utilizing the number of sick days they utilize. We’ve created an incentive there. If teachers use less than six (of 12) sick/personal days, with the exemption of funeral days, they shall receive a $375 attendance bonus to be paid by June 30. We are averaging about nine absences per teacher. We’re trying to reduce that down to five because the more our teachers are with the students, the better the learning situation. Although our subs do a great job, it’s just not the same.”

Daniel added that the contract would expire at midnight June 30, 2013.

“The reason that’s important is we don’t want to have the calendar issue that we had this year,” the superintendent said, “and that was because we were still trying to sort through steps and the new law that took effect. Those are the primary pieces of compensation and the major changes in the contract.”

“It’s amazing how complicated it is,” President Larry Seurynck commented. “The wonderful thing that’s happening here is the teachers are showing trust. The give-and-take was unprecedented. It gives us the ability to budget and to weather the radical swings in funding that we’ve seen. I think it’s a great settlement in a very volatile time. Everybody’s trying to do what needs to be done. Negotiations are not easy. There are so many complicating points. It’s really nice to get this off the table for a couple of years and let everybody get back to what they do best. In this climate, we only wanted to go one year, but they had several reasons for two, so we worked out contingencies to have some protection and they can move forward.”

Vice President Michelle Helmuth added, “If we have kids, we have money to pay the teachers. There’s an incentive to keep kids enrolled. In the business part of it, that’s what drives it.”

Daniel thanked board members who sat down on Friday with DEA President Keith Klann.

“That was very beneficial,” the superintendent said, “because we left with a common understanding that we’re all in this together, working for a common goal. Sure, we want to compensate teachers and steps are an integral part of that, but at the same time we have to be accountable and we’re working with a limited budget, so that was huge.”

Helmuth moved that the board ratify the proposed contract, seconded by Stacy Leversen.

Her motion carried 6-0, with support from Seurynck, Ronda Sullivan, Claudia Zebell and Julia Smith. Mark Dobberstein was absent.