Belle Vernon Area School District, teachers’ union ratify new five-year deal
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Belle Vernon Area School District and its teachers’ union have ratified a new five-year contract after more than a year of negotiations, including two eight-hour sessions mere days before schools statewide were shuttered due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The new contract is retroactive to July 1, 2019, and runs through June 30, 2024.
The first year of the contract does not include a salary increase for union members, but is followed by 2% pay hikes over the remaining four years.
A press release announcing the new contract did not include salary particulars or a salary range for teachers.
Teachers made modifications to their health care plans, adding a new plan that will allow teachers to choose different plans from throughout the Westmoreland County Public School Healthcare Consortium.
In exchange for monetary concessions, district officials agreed to add contract language related to online learning, professional development and teacher evaluations along with additional support for special education teachers, counselors and nurses.
“It was apparent on both sides of the negotiations table that team members understood the current and future challenges for school districts, and that the fair and appropriate completion of the negotiations process was necessary to help keep the focus on the long-term academic and financial success of the District,” Superintendent Michele Dowell said. “The settlement will help sustain the quality of educational programs and services in the Belle Vernon Area School District and will provide continuity for our students.”
Belle Vernon Education Association President Daneen Watson said she was happy to see a five-year contract that offers stability to teachers.
“We realize in these economic times that we had to help where we could financially,” Watson said. “Our students are most important, and our team kept that as our focus.”
The district’s annual fund balance had declined each year from 2013-14 to 2016-17, and began to rebound in 2017-18. District officials have set a target goal of bringing it back up to $2 million, about 5% of the total budget.