By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Dowagiac Board of Education met in closed session for 45 minutes Monday night before ratifying a two-year master contract with the district's 158 teachers.
Earlier in the meeting at Dowagiac Middle School, the school board voted a 1-percent raise for 50 administrators, secretaries and paraprofessionals – anyone who is not a certified individual or represented by a bargaining unit.
Superintendent Peg Stowers and Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations Hal Davis said after the meeting that the teacher contract will cost the district a little more than $200,000 and the other raises $25,000, which will be reflected in the March budget revision.
The teacher contract covers 2006-07 and 2007-08. Teachers get 1-percent base pay raises each year.
Davis said the agreement also provides a longevity pay increase of $150 per year for qualified staff.
Those who currently receive $300 and $450 will see those amounts go to $450 and $600; and the second year, $600 and $750.
"Health care, the board's contribution is increased by $40 a month per FTE (fulltime equivalent) in '06-'07 and $15 a month in '07-'08. It's currently $1,015, which goes to $1,055 this year and to $1,070 next year," Davis said.
The board also approved a resignation and early retirement incentive plan as part of the settlement.
"It equates to a $5,000 base benefit, plus $100 for every unused sick day. They can accumulate up to 155 sick days, so if you were to be paid $100 for 155 you can get $15,500 in addition to the $5,000, for a total benefit of $20,500. Anyone who is at the top of the (pay) scale" is eligible, Davis explained, "and has at least 10 years service to Dowagiac schools. Probably half the staff" qualifies.
Anyone taking advantage of the cost-lowering buyout has until March 16 to declare, with a seven-day right to refusal after signing.
"It's been at least two or three years since the district's offered anything," he said. "It's a plan you use to try to encourage staff who are eligible to retire or resign to do that so you can replace them with less costly staff."
At least 15 must commit to the plan for it to be implemented.
"We won't save anything the first year," Davis said, "because they're going to be employed for the rest of this year. Next year I would hire their replacements and pay them their benefit also, so I'm not going to save anything until the third year."
Stowers said the board remains in the "fact-finding" phase of privatization.
Last March, as part of strategic planning, the board, parents, citizens and staff spent an evening brainstorming ways to possibly reduce expenses.
"To at least explore privatization came out of that," Stowers said. "You can hardly pick up a newspaper anymore without reading something about it. The board is taking a look at it to see if it would provide any financial relief. No decisions have been made. At this point, RFPs (request for proposals) have only gone out for custodial."
But "in the grand scheme of the strategic plan, the board has asked us to look at everything," Davis added. "We don't just mean support services. By law, you have to employ teachers and a superintendent. It doesn't say you have to employ anyone else. The board said it would take the entire school year to make a decision. It's going to work on that at an upcoming work session and analyze information that's been submitted so far, then probably take a little more time to decide whether or not they think this is in the best interest of the district."
"It's one more measure in revenue equaling expenditure, just like summer tax collection," Stowers said, "and generating dollars for the district instead of spending dollars and easing our budget problem," which anticipates a deficit of more than half a million dollars this school year, compounded by the uncertainty of state aid.
The district built its budget on a promised $210 increase per student, but now could be looking instead at as much as a $224 loss per student. This is the third time in five years that schools have experienced funding cuts.
There's a problem with school and state funding and the district wants legislators to fix it. A $200-per-pupil cut would mean approximately $520,000 in less revenue; $100, $260,000 less.
Food service has been contracted for more than 25 years. The entire staff works for an outside company.
Three seats will be filled in the May 8 election – President Randy Cuthbert, Vice President Sherry File and Michelle Charles, appointed in October to Greg Ferrier's term. School board candidates have until Feb. 13 to file.