More details emerged Friday about the final best contract offer the Souderton Area School Board approved and made public to the district's teachers Thursday night.

The school district's three-year offer contains about the same increases in teacher pay of about 2.5 percent a year that has been offered all along; reworked health-care coverage; and additional steps on the teacher salary schedule.

School board President Bernie Currie pointed out that the offer seeks to increase the starting salary, smooth out the "bump step" and raise the "max max" step.

The bump step refers to a large jump in the salaries as teachers advance from their 14th to their 15th years of service.

Souderton Area Education Association President Bill Lukridge said Friday that at least one part of the school board's offer may not be welcomed by teachers: the addition of extra steps on the salary schedule to smooth out the bump step.

"We're not going to add steps to our

calendar, that's just not going to fly with us," said Lukridge.

The teacher salary schedule for 2007-08 features pay hikes of roughly $17,000 for teachers advancing from years 14 to 15. For example, a teacher with a master's degree earns $66,171 in year 14 and $83,451 in year 15.

"Imagine if you're on step 14, which is the next to last step, but during the course of the contract you'll never get to the top step because they're always putting a step in front of you," he said.

"We've already let the board know that adding steps to the salary guide just isn't in the best interests of our membership," said Lukridge.

The school board's offer adds a step 15a between 14 and 15 in 2008-09, an additional step 15b in 2009-10, and an additional step 15c in 2010-11 to the salary schedule, but Lukridge said Friday that more steps are not necessarily the answer.

"We're trying to eliminate big steps too, but there are other solutions to fix that problem, and we're trying to look at other ways to solve those problems," he said.

When asked for comment on the district's final best offer Friday, Gary Smith, the negotiator for the teachers union, said he was out of the office but would meet on Sunday to examine the district's proposal.

"We hope to get some confirmations on Monday, but I don't work on Mr. Sultanik's timetable," Smith said.

Also, an updated district calendar was released showing fixes the board approved Thursday. A press release from the school district described details of the arbitration process; the school board's offer itself was posted online; and a new e-mail address, Arbitration-Comments@soudertonsd.org, has been established to send in comments on both sides' final offers.

First, the calendar:

"Due to the 13 days of missed instruction as a result of the recent work stoppage, and in order to meet the requirement of 180 days of instruction by June 15, we're required to change some former holidays to instructional days," said Superintendent Charles Amuso.

Former holidays that Souderton Area students will now spend in school include Rosh Hashanah on Sept. 30, Yom Kippur on Oct. 9, Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 19 and Presidents Day on Feb. 16, according to the revised district schedule.

"Also, the scheduled Act 80 days are not permitted to the school district this year because there was a work stoppage," said Amuso. "Even if it was only a one-day stoppage, all of the days would have to be eliminated."

Former Act 80 dates which will now see full days of school are Sept. 25, Jan. 14 and March 11. Parents won't be able to schedule teacher conferences on Nov. 24, 25 or 26, because those are all now full days, and spring break will be shorter too, with school in session on April 9 and 13.

"And June 15 is the 13th day we'd have to make up, so that means it will have to be a full day for kindergarten as well as the rest of the district's students," Amuso said.

The district also named the three members of the panel that will arbitrate the dispute between the board and the teachers.

SAEA chose Donald Atkiss as its interest arbitrator, the school district chose Mark Fitzgerald as its interest arbitrator, and both have agreed to name Rochelle Kaplan to be the neutral arbitrator on the three-person panel.

"As part of the process required under Act 88 of 1992, the public comment period on the best offers will be initiated next week, when we hope to have received the Souderton Area Education Association's final best offer," said school district negotiator Jeffrey Sultanik.

To see the full details on the proposal, go to www.thereporteronline.com.

The district office will have hard copies of both sides' offers on hand as soon as the public comment period begins, and both will be posted online at www.SoudertonSD.org.

Comments on the offers may be submitted via e-mail to Arbitration-Comments@soudertonsd.org, or submitted to the district offices at 760 Lower Road in Franconia Township. All comments must state the name and address of a resident of the Souderton Area School District.