The Indiana School Board approved a new agreement between the district and its teachers Monday night.
The new agreement with the Indiana Area Educators Association is a 5 year agreement that will go into effect July 1st, and will feature a salary increase of 1.98% every year, and it also includes increases in co-pay and deductible costs for health care coverage. Board President Doug Steve said neither the district nor the teachers union received everything they wanted in the new contract, but was happy with the salary level increases.
The vote was six to three in favor of the contract, with Julia Trimarchi-Cuccaro, Tamara Leeper and Walter Schroth voting against it. Schroth said one of the reasons he was against it was that he wanted to see a shorter term in the contract, preferring a three-year agreement to help with what he called “flattening the tax curve”.
In other business, the board approved the preliminary budget at last night’s meeting, which comes to $55,697,253 and includes a 3% tax increase. The budget will be posted on the district’s website and at the district offices for public inspection, and will be up for final approval on June 26th.
