SHAMOKIN – Shamokin teachers finally have a new contract. The Shamokin Area school board approved a contract with the Shamokin Area Education Association Tuesday night. Tony Michetti, negotiator for the school board says there were concessions on both sides, “I would think it’s a good compromise for everybody. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t come to this type of an agreement sooner, but I think both sides, hopefully, walk away feeling like it’s a fair deal.”
The school board did get some of the concessions they were looking for in the contract, “The board had always been asking for concessions relative to health care premium sharing. The bargaining agreement that’s been implemented has an increasing contribution to health care premiums by the teachers.”
Michetti says teacher salaries will increase on a schedule with an overall raise that is not retroactive, “The salary raises are on par with other contract settlements and healthy in the sense of percentages, if you look at it, between a four and five percent raise.”
Shamokin teachers have been without a contract since June 2013 and went on strike two times during the current school year. The new contract runs from July 2013 through June 2018.
