By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
With the help of a mediator Sept. 30, the Burlington Education Association and the Burlington Area School District School District Personnel Committee reached a tentative agreement on a contract.
Neither side wanted to discuss details before the contract is reviewed and ratified first by the BEA membership, and then by the full School Board at the Oct. 14 meeting.
“We came to a tentative agreement,” said BEA president Bill Berkholtz. “We haven’t ratified it, and the board hasn’t ratified it yet.
“But there were compromises involved.”
The contract is for the 2012-13 school year. The process of negotiations for the 2013-14 school year has yet to begin.
However, basic differences in how a budgeted 2 percent raise would be applied – experienced teachers vs. newer teachers, as an example – caused the stalemate back in the beginning of September.
The district announced that a mediator would be brought in, though neither side elaborated on where the two offers differed.
On Tuesday night, Berkholtz confirmed that the basic difference of opinion came over where the money would be distributed in each of the cells on the contract – determined by both experience and education level.
“The process was fine,” Berkholtz said. “The mediator … did a very nice job in trying to get a compromise.”
BASD Superintendent Peter Smet said Tuesday night that he didn’t want to comment on anything until the board had had a chance to look at the results of Monday night’s closed-session meeting.
“We’re going to wait until the board has an opportunity to review it,” said Smet, who added that the Personnel Committee negotiated the contract.
“This is the process we go through,” Smet added.
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