Tuesday, August 08, 2006

News Release - Holland Teachers Ratify 3 Year Agreement

News Release

August 7, 2006

Subject: Holland Teachers Ratify 3 Year Agreement

Contact: Charles Bullard 616-494-2260

At a general membership meeting held this evening, the Holland Teachers voted to ratify a 3 year Agreement with the Holland Public Schools. The agreement is retroactive to the beginning of the 2005-2006 school year and will continue through the 2007-2008 school year.

After over a year of negotiations with the district making no movement towards reaching a settlement, the parties entered into two lengthy bargaining sessions on July 26 and 27. This resulted in a tentative agreement on all of the remaining outstanding issues. “After 14 months of not moving on their insurance position, the district finally agreed to compromise,” commented HEA president Charles Bullard. “As their financial situation, based on their 3 year projections kept getting better and better, I believe it was hard for them to continue to justify their position on salary and insurance.”

The board had recently petitioned for fact finding with a proposal that would have only guaranteed .5% of salary improvements over a 3 year period and a continuation of their illegally imposed health insurance plan. This new agreement guarantees step advancements, salary improvements each year, and a far superior comprehensive MESSA health plan that will actually cost less than the insurance plan they had imposed for the 2006-2007 school year.

The illegally imposed plan that was forced on the majority of the insured HEA members saw a first year rate increase of almost 12%. The MESSA rate increase for this year came in a 7.41%. “Obviously MESSA’s large pool rating made a difference when it comes to the stability of health costs for Holland Teachers,” commented Jon Toppen, HEA Chief Negotiator.

“Deep wounds have been made as a result of the negotiating agenda pursued by the district during this round of bargaining,” said Bullard. “Things have got to change,” he added. In the category of Basic Instructional Expenditures, the Holland teachers rank 20th out of the 23 districts statewide that are comparable in size. The Total Administrative Expenditures for Holland rank 4th out of 23 for those same comparable districts.