The Pleasant Valley School Board approved the new contract Monday night with the Pleasant Valley Education Association. The contract is for four years: July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2025.

Michael Simonetta, the business manager, gave a synopsis of the contract before the vote. In it, he explained that the salaries have an average increase of 2.5% each year.

Since the first year of the contract covers the current school year, the actual increase for this year is 0.2%. After that, the salary increase is 2.8% for the second year and third year, and 3.5% for the fourth year.

Other items that were agreed upon in the contract include:

• Increase in health care deductibles: In-network: July 1, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2022 - $250 single, $500 family; Jan. 1, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2024 - $700 single, $1,400 family; Jan. 1, 2025 - $725 single, $1,450 family; Out-of-network: $1,000 single, $2,000 family;

• Increase on premium share per paycheck: $15 to $25 single, $30 to $40 employee and spouse, $25 to $35 parent and child, $35 to $45 parent and children, $40 to $50 family;

• Increase on prescription co-pay: it was a minimum and maximum of $10 to $50 for retail and is now $20 to $80 for retail. Mail order prescriptions are $40 to $120. The cost is different depending on if the medication is generic, brand preferred, or brand non-preferred.

• Removal of co-insurance;

• Decrease in cost for spousal share: it was $75 per month and is now $60 per month to add a spouse, who could be covered by his or her employer, to the employee’s health care coverage;

• Changes to stipends;

• Flexible spending accounts for professional staff for health care have been added;

• Vision plan is now included in health care. Dental care was already included in the benefits;

• Life insurance benefit was increased to $100,000, and;

• Placed a cap on tuition reimbursement per year of $100,000 plus $25,000 for those seeking Instructional II certification, and raised the number of credits per semester from nine to 12 credits. Correspondence or video courses will not be reimbursed.

“The total impact on the budget with the concessions with the salary increases, it’s an average annual impact on the budget of 2%,” Simonetta said.

Drew Dymond, the president of the PVEA, said, “I’m pleased that PVEA and the district have been able to work collaboratively to bring labor peace to Pleasant Valley through the 2024-2025 school year. This would not have been possible without the dedication of the Association’s Negotiations Committee, who have spent countless hours over the past two years working to reach this point. I’m grateful that each member of that committee was willing to volunteer their time.”

The contract was approved by all seven board members present at the meeting. School board members Michael Galler and Teresa Greggo were absent.

President Susan Kresge said Galler was not able to attend the meeting due to a work requirement, but he asked her to let everyone know he was in favor of the new contract.

Galler was one of the three school board members on the negotiating committee with the PVEA. The other two were Norm Burger and Diane Serfass.

“As many of you know, the process to negotiate the collective bargaining agreement with the Pleasant Valley Education Association began in January of 2021, nearly 16 months ago. As the new school board began their term in December, it was this board’s priority to engage the Pleasant Valley Education Association in direct and productive discussion in order to achieve labor peace in this district,” Kresge said.

“Speaking as one member of this board, I am proud of the parties’ collective ability to achieve a contract that strikes the balance of the fiscal needs of our community, the taxpayers, along with recognizing the hard work our teachers have put in every day during these very trying times. The contract agreed to this evening balances the fiscal concerns the board has expressed both here and at the negotiations table along with working condition concerns the association raised with us during bargaining. In many respects, the terms agreed to were the result of the parties listening to each other.”

Burger thanked Serfass and Galler and others involved in the negotiations. He thinks the negotiation process went better than in the past.

“I look forward to seeing this being a step forward toward the healing process of making Pleasant Valley whole,” Burger said.

Serfass said, “This was a very good negotiation process. Both teams walked away a little bit disappointed. That means you’ve done your job. Everybody got a little bit of something. The net effect was beneficial to both parties in language and finances.”