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Pasco school district reaches tentative employee contract

 
Published Aug. 11, 2015

For the first time in about a decade, the Pasco County school district has concluded its employee contract talks before faculty and staff return to work.

In a brief meeting Monday, representatives of the district and United School Employees of Pasco signed all outstanding proposals relating to pay, sick leave and performance evaluations. Among the highlights:

- Every non-instructional employee will get a minimum raise of 3 percent, unlike past years when the increase was an average. Teachers will get 1.5 percent as a cost-of-living increase and another raise based on their selected pay plan.

- Employees will be able to donate and receive sick leave to others through a new voluntary program.

- Student performance will count as 35 percent of a teacher's evaluation rather than 50 percent. Also in evaluations, the criteria for a "highly effective" rating was toughened.

After sealing the deal, the sides then made an added agreement that employees would see the tentative raises take effect in their Sept. 4 paychecks. If the contracts are not ratified, they would have to return the added amount.

"We're thrilled to have this done early enough that people will come back to work with a contract," said Betsy Kuhn, the district's employee relations director.

"I was a bit pessimistic (about getting done early) when the legislative session was going on," USEP president Kenny Blankenship said. "We really worked hard on both sides to get the negotiations done."

Blankenship praised the district's "progressive position" on making raises a budget priority, and anticipated support from teachers and school-related personnel.

See the instructional finance agreement, teacher evaluation memorandum of understanding and the school-related personnel finance agreement for more details.

Story here.