Peters Township teachers’ contract made public

Peters Township School District teachers will have a work day of 7 1/2 hours but will see it increase by 15 minutes as of the 2020-21 school year, according to details of the just-released labor agreement between the district and the Peters Township Federation of Teachers.
The six-year agreement, negotiated last month and signed June 21, is retroactive to the beginning of the 2015-16 school year. The pact calls for teachers to give five periods of classroom instruction and have at least 30 minutes of preparation time each day, an amount that should not exceed one hour.
The work year for teachers will be 193 days, including five clerical days and eight in-service/parent conference days, according to the contract.
Teachers who split their time between buildings will be given 15 minutes to commute between Pleasant Valley Elementary and Peters Township High School, and also between McMurray Elementary and Peters Township Middle schools. Traveling teachers will be given 24 minutes to travel all other school combinations, such as Bower Hill Elementary to Pleasant Valley Elementary.
Class size was one of the issues discussed during the eight-plus months of contract negotiations, which included a three-week work stoppage in the fall. According to the contract, the district and the union agree class size may affect educational standards, district finances and working conditions.
”The district will make reasonable efforts to keep class size to a level that is appropriate for the subject and the grade level involved,” the contract states.
Annual salary increases for teachers vary from $786 for teachers on the highest salary tier to $1,000 for teachers who are on the 16 lower tiers. In addition to his or her base salary, each employee will be paid for the total years of continuous service in the last pay of each school term: six through 10 years, $200; 11 though 20 years, $350, and 21 years or more, $500. All mentor teachers will receive a $1,000 annual stipend during the life of the contract.
According to the contract, employees who are enrolled in the Highmark PPO Blue Plan or its equivalent will pay $100 a month for individual coverage and $185 for family coverage. At the end of the labor agreement, that amount will rise to $125 a month for individual and $240 a month for family coverage.
If a full-time, tenured employee is laid off, the district will continue health care, dental and life insurance for the remainder of the school year through August.
During the life of the contract, employees will receive $49,900 woth of life insurance coverage. All employees get 10 sick days, which can be accumulated prior to the opening of each school year.
The contract also states that there will be no lockouts, strikes, work stoppages or other impeding of work. There will be no reprisals against employees because of union membership.
The last day of school for the district’s 4,000-plus students was June 23, about three weeks later than originally scheduled, because of the teachers’ strike.