By Bethany Hofstetter

Published: Wednesday, January 23, 2013, 9:00 p.m.
Updated: Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Hampton Township School District teachers have a new contract after unanimous approval by the school board last week.

The board approved the contract at its voting meeting on Jan. 14, to start retroactively from July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2016.

“A big thank you to the Hampton negotiation team,” said school board President David Gurwin. “I really believe the entire process was handled in a very professional manner.

“We knew we had a partner on the other side of the table in people who truly care about the education of our students.”

The contract includes a wage freeze of the salary schedule during the 2013-2014 school year to maintain the current year's schedule.

District officials project teachers' salaries to increase, on average, about 3 percent; however, teachers at the top of the salary scale will experience an average increases of less than 1 percent.

The district also will see a reduction in projected future healthcare costs due to an increase in premium contributions, as well as other adjustments to the healthcare program.

The new contract also contains a one-time, early-retirement incentive, which will reduce the overall effect on payroll.

The teachers' contract expired at the end of last school year, in June 2012, and the Hampton Township Education Association bargaining team and district representatives met about once per month to negotiate with a state-appointed mediator present.

The negotiations committees reached a tentative deal on Dec. 19, and the union membership approved the agreement on Jan. 10.

Representatives from the district and Hampton Township Education Association signed the collective-bargaining agreement last week after all final revisions were complete.

Bethany Hofstetter is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-772-6364 or bhofstetter@tribweb.com.

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