By: Dan Sokil

Now that the Souderton Area Education Association's last best offer has been made public, the contentious issues of teacher salaries, bonuses for doctorates, even the number of work days per school year remain sticking points between the Souderton Area School Board and the district's teachers union.

"It's really the same offer that we've seen from them from the commencement of the bargaining process," said school district negotiator Jeffrey Sultanik.

Posted Tuesday evening, the teachers union's offer proposes a four year contract similar to the contract teachers worked under from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2008. A three year last best offer was made public last week by the school district.

Both sides are looking to change the length of the teachers' work year, specified in the 2004-2008 contract as "a total of 192 work days per school year."

The SAEA's proposal would reduce that number to 188 days per year, while the school board's offer changes that number to 183 days in 2008-09, 195 work days in 2009-10, and 196 work days in 2010-11.

The number of instructional days would remain at 180 per year.

The school board proposes a lengthy offer of performance pay incentives, where an 8 person panel (4 members to be chosen by the union and 4 by the board) would decide how to allocate $150,000 per school year for rewarding teachers.

The performance pay offer can be found on pages 5-7 of the school board's last best offer; the teachers union rejects any performance pay provisions and prefers to maintain the language in the 2004-08 agreement, which does not discuss the matter.

Both sides attempt to address potential teacher obligations beyond classroom teaching in their last best offers. The third page of the teachers union's offer presents a list of meetings and events teachers would need to participate in, while the school board proposes a more general list of possible duties on pages 7-8 of its last best offer.

Each also takes a different approach to raising teacher salaries, which the union has maintained are among the lowest in Montgomery County.

For example, a first year teacher with a bachelor's degree and less than 12 educational credits would have earned

$37,323 in 2007-08 under the contract which expired June 30.

The teachers union's proposal would start teacher salaries at $38,768 in 2008-09, $40,212 in 2009-10, $41,657 in 2010-11 and $43,102 in 2011-12.

Under the school board's proposal, that starting salary would increase to $38,443 in 2008-09's salary schedule, to $39,596 in 2009-10 and to $40,874 in 2010-11.

A teacher who has earned a master's degree would see increases under both offers too. The starting and maximum salary under the expired contract for a teacher with a master's and fewer than 12 educational credits ranged from $41,046 at step one to $83,451 at step 15 for 2007-08.

The teachers union's proposal sees those salaries increase to $43,611 at step one and $86,237 at step 15 in 2008-09, from $46,176 at step one to $89,023 at step 15 in 2009-10, from $48,740 at step one to $91,809 at step 15 in 2010-11 and from $51,305 at step one to $94,505 at step 15 in 2011-12.

Under the school board's offer, that same teacher's salary would start at $41,867 and top out after 15 steps at $84,703 in 2008-09, $42,704 at step one to $85,973 at steps 15 in 2009-10 and $43,558 at step one to $87,263 at step 15 in 2010-11.

The salary schedules from the teachers union's offer remain 15 steps for each of the four years, while the school board's proposal adds a step 15a to the schedule in 2008-09, an additional step 15b to the schedule in 2009-10 and a step 15c to the schedule in 2010-11.

The difference in these steps is clear when one examines the next to last step in each offer, and the "jump," or difference between that step and the final step of each salary schedule.

For example, under the expired contract a teacher with a bachelor's degree only would earn $52,616 on step 14 and $70,275 on step 15, an increase of $17,659 from step 14 to step 15.

The teachers union proposes increasing salaries leading up to step 14 so that the step 14 salary for that teacher with a bachelor's degree starts at $59,083 in 2008-09, $65,549 in 2009-10, $72,016 in 2010-11 and $78,482 in 2011-12.

Under the school board's offer, the step 15a salary for a teacher with a bachelor's would be $55,549 in 2008-09, the step 15b salary would be $58,646 in 2009-10, and the step 15c salary would be $61,916 in 2010-11.

The "max max," or highest salary attainable by a teacher in the district, sees significant increases under both proposals too. Under the expired contract, a teacher with a master's degree, 24 educational credits and 15 years of service would have earned $89,363 in 2007-08.

That "max max" number starts under the teachers union proposal at $92,210 in 2008-09, $95,056 in 2009-10, $97,903 in 2010-11 and $100,750 in 2011-12.

The school board's proposal sees a "max max" of $90,703 in 2008-09, of $92,064 in 2009-10 and of $93,445 in 2010-11.

Under the 2004-08 contract, a teacher who earned a doctorate degree in their area of assignment would be eligible for an additional $2,000 in salary above that "max max," or master's plus 24 credit level.

The teachers union's proposal would raise that increase to $4,000 while the school board's proposal would keep it at $2,000.

Both sides also disagree on how the public can comment on the final best offers.

The school board announced Friday that, in addition to hard copy written comments, those submitted via e-mail would be welcomed at a specially established e-mail address.

However, the SAEA has asked that comments on its offer be made only in hard copy submitted to the district offices at 760 Lower Road in Franconia Township, and not via e-mail until potential security issues are resolved.

"It's not that we don't want people to submit them online, but this is the first time we've done this with electronic availability," said teachers union negotiator Gary Smith.

All submitted comments must include the name and address of a resident of the Souderton Area School District.

"We've been looking at how to make sure the comments from the public are secure and haven't been hacked," Smith said, "but at the moment I don't know what they're going to do as far as the electronic comments are concerned because I haven't had a chance to get in touch with their technology staff on that."

The school board welcomes electronic comments submitted via the e-mail address Arbitration-Comments@soudertonsd.org, said district negotiator Jeffrey Sultanik.

"Technically the union is correct that the law, Act 88 of 1992, does not provide for electronic comments," Sultanik said. "The school district was just doing it to encourage the community to get involved; certainly the 1992 law did not contemplate the electronic communication that it's now so easy to take part in."