The Pleasant Valley School District released the contract this week that it signed with the teachers’ union. The Pleasant Valley Education Association had threatened a strike in December in an effort to push negotiations. The contract, which was overdue by a year, was signed in June.

The new contract is for five years and is retroactive to July 1, 2021. It expires on June 30, 2025.

The biggest changes come in health care benefits.

Effective Jan. 1, 2023, co-insurances will cease, and the deductible for single employees for in-network care is $700 per year and will increase to $725 on Jan. 1, 2025. It was $250 per year.

For a family, the in-network deductible will be $1,400, then $1,450 on Jan. 1, 2025. It was $500.

The out-of-network deductible remains the same at $1,000 for single and $2,000 for family.

Employee contributions have changed slightly.

The former contract had an employee contribution of $20 per pay period. The new contract has different employee contribution amount depending on the family makeup.

Effective Aug. 1, a single employee will drop to $15 per pay period, until Sept. 1, 2024 when it will go up to $25 per pay period. An employee with a spouse will pay $30 and then $40 in 2024.

A parent with a child will contribute $25 per pay period, and then $35 in 2024. A parent with children will contribute $35 per pay period, and then $45 in 2024. And a person with a family will contribute $40 per pay period and $50 in 2024.

In the previous contract, spouses who have coverage from another employer could be covered by PVSD at a cost of $75 per month. This cost is dropped to $60 per month for the length of the new contract.

The copays for visits to the doctor, specialist, urgent care, or emergency room remain the same at $20, $25, $50 and $100 respectively.

The new contract adds vision care to the already covered dental and prescription care, bumps the life insurance to $100,000 in coverage from $50,000.

One item left in the scrap pile is the sick leave incentive. The prior contract gave employees a monetary incentive if they didn’t use sick days. That’s gone. Use the sick days.

Upon retirement, the new contract provides $115 per earned sick day, whether earned at PVSD or another school district. This is up from $70 per day in the former contract. The money has to be placed in a tax-sheltered annuity plan in the name of the teacher who is retiring.

It also keeps the school district policy of providing medical benefits, at the school district’s expense, to retired teachers who have been with the school district at least 25 years and who are eligible for pension benefits until the retired employee reaches 65 years old. The retired employee has the option of paying family coverage premiums.

One new item is that it requires the PVEA to notify the school district by Jan. 15 if they would like to request a retirement incentive package. In return, the district has to respond to the request within 30 days.

As for salaries, the lowest salary for the 2022-2023 school year is $47,357 for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree at step one.

The chart goes up to step 14 and includes master’s degrees and doctorates. Someone at step 14 with a doctorate would make $99,457.

Salaries in the chart increase by about 1.5% per year of the contract.

Teachers assigned to the life skills, emotional support, physical support, autistic support and multiple disabilities classrooms will receive a $1,000 stipend per school year. The prior contract did not include this stipend.

Similarly, people who maintain a national board certification through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the National Board for Certification of School Nurses or the American Nurses Credentialing Center for education specialists employed as school nurses will receive a $1,000 stipend per school year.

The new contract also increased the number of college credits that can be reimbursed per year. That was increased from nine credits to 12 with an annual tuition cap of $100,000. The district will also provide $25,000 per school year to employees looking to achieve their Instructional II certification.