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PRINGLE &mdash; The Joint Operating Committee that runs the West Side Career and Technology Center approved a new teacher contract at the monthly meeting Monday.
				The previous contract expired in 2017. The new contract runs from now through June 2025, with no retroactive pay increases, Business Manager Grant Palfey explained before the vote. There are salary increases each year moving forward, but the two sides also negotiated a new premium sharing plan for health insurance. The pay increases minus the premium share ends up adding about 1.8% to the budget each year during the contract.
				The numbers can&rsquo;t be exact because, by contract, teacher salaries are supposed to be an average of salaries in the five member districts. If one of the districts negotiates a new contract with generous increases, it could mean increases at the CTC, but if a member district negotiates a contract with small increases, the salaries at the CTC could be lower than expected.
				In contrast, negotiating premium sharing with CTC teachers was a break from the tradition of having such a move contingent on what the five member districts arrange with their teachers. The new premium share deal is independent of what member districts negotiate with their teachers.
				The premium sharing is an annual dollar amount for existing employees: $40 for single coverage, $60 for employee and a spouse, and $75 for family. New hires will pay 10 percent of the premium regardless of coverage, but will also be able to purchase family coverage upon being hired, Palfey said. The former contract offered only single person coverage for the first three years.
				Offering family coverage to new employees the first year is one of two changes in the contract designed to attract new hires. Palfey said the CTC has been having trouble getting qualified applicants. The other change in the new contract is to boost starting pay from about $42,000 to $48,989.
				The committee also approved a final budget for the 2021-2 school year with total spending of a bit more than $7. The budget is covered primarily through per student payments by the five member school districts that send students to the CTC.
				The committee approved the purchase of new lockers from Fastenal at a cost of $85,493, which includes installation and the removal of the old lockers. While the purchase was approved during the 2020-21 School Year, the CTC won&rsquo;t be paying for it until the 2021-22 school year because there is a 14-week lead time, and the bill won&rsquo;t come until 30 days after the installation.
				Palfey said the school has about 792 lockers but will not be replacing them all at once. The plan calls for replacing lockers in two hallways this year and replacing lockers in the other hallways over the two years after that.
				The school will also be renting a new chiller unit from Aircon Service Company, Inc., at a cost of $31,3655, which includes installation.
				And Palfey mentioned that the CTC is applying for COVID-related federal grant money totalling $213,431 that will go toward cleaning supplies, internet connectivity and related equipment, and hopefully to purchase new programmable automated cleaners for large areas like the hallways and gyms. The idea is to free up staff to clean smaller rooms with more furniture like classrooms.

West Side CTC approves new teacher contract