Eastern Carver County teachers reject new contract

It's back to the negotiating table for teachers and school leaders in the Eastern Carver County School District, after teachers rejected a contract offer Tuesday that included a first for the district: no teacher raises tied to years of service.

Of the 603 teachers who cast ballots, 415 voted against accepting the deal and 188 voted in support of it.

"The message has been sent to me and the negotiators, and we just have to go back to work," said Tim Griffin, president of the Chaska Education Association, the local teachers union.

Eastern Carver County is one of many school districts in the western suburbs and around the state that have not settled their contracts with teachers. All Minnesota school districts must ratify new contracts by Jan. 15 or risk losing part of their state funding.

Superintendent David Jennings said at this point it's too late for the district to make the deadline, and it now stands to lose $220,000.

"I'm disappointed the contract wasn't approved," he said. "We knew what we offered wasn't everything teachers were hoping for, but we believed it was what we could afford."

While step raises would have been frozen, teachers would have seen some increases in pay and benefits in the contract. The total cost to the district over two years would have represented a 4 percent increase, or about $2 million, over the last contract.

In addition, the offer included a 10 percent increase, or $600 more, for health insurance. Union leaders say health insurance costs for teachers have jumped 10 percent this year and are expected to increase by 15 percent in the second year of the contract.

In the days leading up to the vote, union leaders held several meetings with members to provide details about the proposal. Griffin said teachers reacted to the deal with mixed emotions. In particular, many teachers were concerned about not having step increases.

Younger teachers view the seniority increases as a reward for longevity and loyalty to the district, he said, and they were worried that those pay jumps wouldn't be there for them later in their careers.

"They can be seen by a first-year teacher as a promise for the future," Griffin said.

Union leaders believed that given the Jan. 15 deadline, this offer was the district's final offer, and were thus motivated to put it to a vote. They also considered this offer, though problematic, to be much better than a "hard freeze" on salaries that the school board had originally proposed, Griffin said.

The freeze on extra pay for years of service was prompted by an especially tough funding climate for schools, Jennings said.

"What led to this is the great recession ... and the economic impact that's had on everybody, including schools," he said. "That, combined with increasingly bad news from St. Paul about the state's financial situation and the prospects for any additional funding for K-12. We saw none in the last biennium, and we expect more cuts to come in this Legislative session."

Griffin said the union now plans to survey teachers to find out what parts of the contract offer fell short of their expectations.