Penn Manor School District OKs teachers' salary freeze-Lancasteronline 04/05/2011

Penn Manor School District OKs teachers' salary freeze Lampeter-Strasburg teachers agree to less pay for fewer days worked
Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era

Updated Apr 05, 2011 18:45

By P.J. REILLY and BRIAN WALLACE, Staff

Correction April 5, 2011 — Lampeter-Strasburg School District administrators volunteered Monday to freeze their salaries at current levels for the 2011-2012 school year. The story below incorrectly stated the freeze was the result of a school board decision.

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School boards in the Penn Manor and Lampeter-Strasburg districts on Monday approved salary concessions expected to save a combined total of more than $1 million next year.

• In Penn Manor, the board voted 7-1 to accept a one-year contract proposed by the teachers that will freeze their salaries at current levels in 2011-12.

• The L-S board unanimously approved a measure offered by the teachers to reduce their work schedule in exchange for less pay next year.

The actions are the latest cost-cutting moves involving teachers, administrators and support staff at Lancaster County public schools, which are facing multimillion-dollar funding deficits in next year's budgets.

The Penn Manor agreement is the first new contract in the county to include a pay freeze. Teachers in two other districts — Hempfield and Warwick — earlier agreed to forgo raises next year in previously negotiated contracts.

With the pay freeze, Penn Manor expects to save about $870,000 next year over the cost of teacher salaries if the current contract was extended, superintendent Mike Leichliter said.

"Both sides worked diligently to come to agreement on a contract which puts the needs of the students first," Leichliter said. "At the same time, we recognize the financial hardships the district and taxpayers are facing."

The district's 384 teachers are in the final year of a three-year contract extension that boosted their pay by an average of 3.7 percent, or about $2,200, in 2010-11.

In exchange for the wage freeze, the district has promised it will not lay off any teachers next year.

The contract also limits the number of pay hikes teachers can receive for completing course work in a master's degree program and compels the administration and teachers to form a committee to study potential cost-saving measures concerning health care in future contracts.

"The (union's) goal was to work together with the district to tackle the current economic challenges facing Penn Manor," Mary Kay Fair, president of Penn Manor Education Association, said in a prepared statement.

In L-S, teachers voted 174-10 last week to amend the terms of their contract and work 187, instead of 191, days next year.

The concession, which was approved by the school board, will reduce teacher raises by an average of about $1,330, saving the district about $300,000, L-S business manager Terry Sweigart said.

The district's 226 teachers received raises averaging about $2,400 this year, Sweigart said, in a contract that expires in June 2012.

In addition to the cuts in raises for teachers, the school board decided salaries for the district's administrators will be frozen next year at this year's level.

School board members said the two salary-cutting measures alone would reduce the 2.9-percent tax hike the district had anticipated for next year to less than 2 percent.

And district officials said more cuts could still be coming to trim that tax hike further.

The concessions approved in the two districts Monday are the latest cost-cutting moves by county school districts grappling with declining state, federal and local revenue, including a proposed $27 million cut in state aid for 2011-12.

Administrators in more than half the county's 17 districts have agreed to pay freezes, as have support staff members in several school districts.

Teachers in several districts, including Manheim Township, Elizabethtown, Conestoga Valley and Cocalico, also are considering concessions for next year.

Negotiations on new contracts are under way for teachers in Manheim Central, School District of Lancaster and Octorara Area school districts and Lancaster County Career & Technology Center.

Correspondents Elaine Jones and Cindy Hummel contributed to this report.
preilly@lnpnews.com
bwallace@lnpnews.com

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