School board in I.C. to vote on teacher pact

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Iowa City school board today will vote on a 2015-16 teacher contract that includes a 3.39 percent total increase in compensation, according to board documents and a district spokesman.

Bargaining teams from the Iowa City Community School District and Iowa City Education Association began work on the contract in November.

The 3.39 percent increase in teachers' total compensation is similar to those in other Corridor districts for next year. It includes salaries, health insurance and retirement benefits, said Mitch Gross, the union's chief negotiator.

Negotiations took longer than usual, officials said, because of uncertainty about how much state funding the district would receive next year. The Iowa Legislature last week agreed to a budget deal that includes a 1.25 percent increase in state supplemental aid — a major school funding category — plus $55.7 million in one-time money.

'Both sides were negotiating in a tough environment given the lack of funding from the Legislature,' Gross said.

This year also was the first time in several years that the district and teachers union negotiated contract language, school district spokesman Chace Ramey said. For the last several years, he said, the parties negotiated only the money in the contract.

'We had a two-year agreement in place the two years prior to this, and those agreements were just about the total package increase,' Ramey said.

Among other changes in the contract, teachers received more time off or more flexibility in several leave categories.

The length of a teacher's workday also increased by 15 minutes, to eight hours, and teaching time for elementary teachers increased by 30 minutes, to six hours and 30 minutes. The school day will be an hour shorter on Thursdays, when students will be released early.

The work year will be five days shorter for returning employees, down to 184 days.

School board President Chris Lynch praised the parties' 'collaborative approach' and said he supports approving the contract.

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