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Next phase of South Valley Parkway opens today

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A new era for Wilkes football gets underway on Saturday

<p>UNION TWP. &#8212; For a district that has had its share of acrimonious teacher contract talks, Northwest Area is poised to approve a new agreement one year ahead of schedule.</p><p>The school board approved a new, five-year deal and the union was expected to vote on it sometime Thursday. The current contract expires Aug. 31, 2019.</p><p>&#8220;This was an early-bird negotiation,&#8221; union lead negotiator Debbie Zabielski said Thursday. &#8220;There were minimum items on the table. Both sides felt we did a lot of good work on the current agreement.&#8221;</p><p>If it wins union approval, the new deal would run five years beginning Sept. 1, 2019. All teachers would be guaranteed a minimum salary increase of $300 per year for the length of the contract, though actual raises would vary depending on where a teacher was on the &#8220;step/column&#8221; system common to teacher contracts.</p><p>Teachers typically get a guaranteed pay increase every year, or &#8220;step&#8221; for a number of years, and get guaranteed raises for attaining a certain number of college credits beyond a bachelor&#8217;s degree, known as columns. Once a teacher reaches the top step and column, the only raises he or she gets are the ones negotiated in each contract.</p><p>The proposed contract would also increase the percentage of the health insurance premium teachers pay. Currently they pay 7 percent of the premium. That would remain the same until 2021-22, when it would rise to 8 percent. It would rise to 9 percent for the last two years of the deal.</p><p>Zabielski said she wasn&#8217;t sure what time the union vote was slated to occur, in large part because district schedules &#8212; and the availability of the high school &#8212; have been disrupted thanks to an Aug. 18 fire that damaged classrooms and caused smoke and water damage elsewhere in the middle/high school.</p><p>Huntington Valley Fire Chief William Miller said Thursday the cause of the fire is still being investigated. But he again noted it is not considered to be suspicious.</p><p>The blaze pushed back the start of the school year for secondary students.</p><p>Initially set to start Aug. 27, classes at the middle/high school will now begin Sept. 10, according to published reports.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Northwest Area one vote away from ‘early-bird’ teacher contract