Union, School Board: Contract 99% There

For the first time in the nearly two-year long negotiation between the Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education and the Dearborn Federation of Teachers, officials on both sides of the aisle say a collective bargaining agreement between the parties is imminent.

Superintendent Brian Whiston said after the district’s regular study session Monday night that an agreement is “very close.”

“The lawyers are working out some contract language and going through it,” he said. “We’re 99 percent there.”

Chris Sipperly, the president of the DFT, agreed.

“We know exactly what we’re going to do,” she said. “There is some language in the contract that we need to look at that is complex, and we need time to do that.”

Neither Whiston nor Sipperly would comment on what provisions the contract would contain regarding teacher wages, benefits, insurance copays and other factors. What is known is that contract would likely increase the number of steps in the pay scale for teachers.

Though the union and district on March 21 passed the 60-day provision to ink a contract under , the fact that both sides are still talking is a harbinger of good things, said Sipperly.

The district, due to a budget announcement by Gov. Rick Snyder that would cut school funding significantly, is facing a $19 million shortfall.            

A Long, Complicated Process

Dearborn Schools’ contract with the 1,200-member DFT expired in June 2009 and has been extended several times as negotiations took place for a new contract. The tone of negotiations was sometimes sour, with teachers criticizing a proposal by the district that would tie their compensation to the percentage of enrollment increases or decreases in a given year. The district this year proposed a 4.8 percent cut.

Other points of contention include increasing the amount teachers pay toward their health care plans, which for some families would have gone up to $700 per month under the district’s proposal.

In January, a fact-finder looked at all of the issues and made nonbinding recommendations to both sides, in the hopes of inking a contract within 60 days of the report’s receipt.

After the report was issued, Whiston and Sipperly said it helped clarify issues for them. But days later, Snyder announced that the he would pare $470 in per-pupil funding, plus make cuts to at-risk funding and increase the amount the district must pay into their pension system, resulting in $14 million and $5 million in losses for Dearborn Schools, respectively.

The fact-finder had recommended teachers accept a 2.4 percent pay cut, additional steps in their pay scale, and pay one-third the cost between a Preferred Provider Organization insurance plan and a less expensive health care plan, if they elect the PPO. 

Parameters Unknown

Though the union hoped a contract would look similar to the fact-finder’s report, the governor’s proposal again complicated matters.

“(Gov. Rick) Snyder’s proposal changed all of that,” said Sipperly.

It remains unclear if, considering Snyder’s proposal, any of the recommendations will make it into the proposed contract.

Once the union contract is inked, it should provide the district with firm numbers to work with as it devises ways to balance its books, said Whiston.

“It will help us a great deal moving forward,” he said.

Any labor agreement, once bargaining teams agree on a proposal, must then be voted on by union membership. If the agreement is OK’d by the DFT membership, the school board must vote to ratify it.

Both Whiston and Sipperly said they believe an agreement will be inked within the next month, and if not, certainly by the end of the school year. Both sides are returning to the bargaining table on April 11.