BY ANDY TAYLOR
chronicle@taylornews.org

CHERRYVALE — A tentative agreement has been reached between the USD 447 Board of Education and the Cherryvale Teachers’ Association regarding a salary dispute that has led to a lawsuit.

The USD 447 board and CTA representatives met last Friday, Nov. 6, in a five-hour negotiation session that drew a compromise agreement. Tina Cunningham, USD 447 president, said she could not divulge full details about the agreement because it had not been approved by the CTA members. The CTA membership is scheduled to discuss the tentative agreement this week; the USD 447 Board of Education will hold a special meeting at 5:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 16, to vote whether to adopt the tentative agreement.

Cunningham did say that the compromise calls for USD 447 teachers to receive a base salary increase of “slightly more than 4 percent” for the 2009-10 school year. The USD 447 Board and CTA had initially agreed to a 4 percent increase to the base salary for the 2009-10 school year as part of a two-year agreement that began in the 2008-09 school year. The first year of that agreement called for a 3 percent increase to the base salary.

However, the CTA filed a lawsuit in the 14th Judicial District Court in Independence claiming that the USD 447 Board of Education had breached its contract with the teachers’ association. The CTA accused the USD 447 board of putting the pay increase on the base salary instead of the total salary pool, which is what the CTA was seeking in the second year of the two-year agreement.

The USD 447 board rebutted the allegation by saying the use of the salary pool was never intended for the 2009-10 salary schedule. It was common practice to apply the increase to the base salary, the USD 447 board said in its rebuttal to the CTA lawsuit.

Should the CTA and USD 447 board adopt the salary agreement in the coming days, then the lawsuit will be declared void, and the agreement will go into effect retroactively to the start of the 2009-10 contract year.

According to public records requested by the Montgomery County Chronicle, the starting base salary for the 2008-09 school year was $34,125 for a teacher without any prior teaching experience and with only a bachelor’s degree.

In the second year of the two-year contract between the CTA and USD 447, the beginning base salary was slated to increase to $35,490, or a 4 percent increase.

Base salary is determined when weighing a teacher’s years of experience plus post-graduate hours. The salary schedule resembles an inverted staircase with the smaller stairs representing the lesser salaries (fewer years experience, bachelor’s degree) while the larger steps represent larger salaries (more years experience, more hours of post-graduate, master’s or specialist degrees).

Base salaries do not include the supplemental wages for coaches, club sponsors or committee chairpersons.

* * * * * * *

USD 447 base salary distribution

Shown below are the breakdowns of salaries of USD 447 faculty for 2009-10 with a 4 percent increase to their base salary from the 2008-09 school year. Assume the actual base salary will be higher because the tentative agreement reached last Friday calls for slightly more than 4 percent increase to the base salary.  The salaries listed below were calculated when the two-year salary agreement was approved in 2008.  Information was obtained by the Kansas Open Records Act and provided by the USD 447 Board of Education Office.
Base salary:  # of teachers

$35,490: 0

$35,815: 3

$36,140: 4

$37,115: 2

$37,315: 1

$37,665: 2

$37,890: 1

$38,365: 2

$38,715: 3

$39,540: 1

$39,765: 1

$39,965: 1

$40,815: 2

$40,890: 2

$41,415: 4

$41,665: 1

$42,090: 3

$42,315: 1

$43,440: 1

$44,565: 2

$45,015: 5

$45,365: 2

$46,790: 1

$46,940: 1

$47,265: 2

$48,615: 1

$49,115: 1

$51,890: 1

$53,540: 2

$54,490: 1

$55,640: 1

$56,467: 1

$58,017: 7