San Benito High School teachers entered an agreement with the district for a two-year contract with a 6 percent raise this year and a 4 percent raise next year through a voting process that ended this afternoon.
“We voted to settle. It was almost unanimous. There was only one ‘no vote’ out of 112. So that’s pretty unanimously in favor I would say,” said Katherine Foster, president of the San Benito High School Teachers Association, in an interview with the Free Lance just after the close of the voting at 4 p.m. today.
Trustees approved a tentative agreement between the district and the San Benito High School Teachers’ Association for a two-year contract last week during the closed session of their regularly scheduled meeting, Foster said. The teachers then had until 4 p.m. today to accept or reject the proposed contract.
“It’s a really good offer. It’s going to put our district’s certificated pay above anyone around us,” said Superintendent John Perales in an interview with the Free Lance on Friday. “It’s something that’s needed.”
Under the new contract, teachers will also get a $300 winter bonus both years regardless of where they are in the step and column salary schedule. Teachers are paid on a “step and column” scale, meaning they systematically receive raises based on their education level and the number of years they have taught.
The contract puts the current expenses for teachers’ salaries at about 79 percent of the district budget this year, which is 3 percent more of the budget than in the previous school year. Fiscal advisors for the district suggest that the school keep the cost of all employees at between 80 and 85 percent of the budget, Perales said.
“We’ve done the math and at this point it would make us the highest-paying district in the surrounding area,” he said.
The last time there was a raise to teacher salary schedules in the district was last year, when the educators received a 2 percent raise, Foster said.
“Between what we got last year and what we got this year, we’re pretty much even to if we’d kept up with the cost of living,” she said.
