DVUSD
– Deer Valley Unified School District on May 8 approved
a tentative agreement with teachers, despite complaints
over rising healthcare costs.
The
Deer Valley Education Association, through the Interest
Based Negotiations team, approved
the tentative agreement May 3, after rejecting an earlier
offer in March. Working conditions, salaries and healthcare
costs, rising an estimated 193 percent, were the main
sticking points of the contract.
Associate
Superintendent Chuck Hoover gave the district’s governing
board a brief synopsis of the
contract language before the vote. He noted the contract
presented on March 27 had not been ratified by the DVEA
and there had been several meetings since then in an attempt
to work out problems.
Out
of those meetings, Hoover said DVUSD will now create and
distribute an information sheet explaining
why the rise in healthcare costs was so dramatic this
year and how much the district spends for employee health
insurance, as well as national trends and comparisons
to other school districts.
Hoover
further explained that under the contract, more unencumbered
money is going to be allocated to teacher salaries, raising
that figure from 88 to 90 percent.
DVEA
executive board member Lori Bruns told The Desert Advocate
that health insurance providers weren’t willing to budge
on the premiums.
Despite
the tentative agreement, several teachers used the Call
to the Public to voice their displeasure with the district,
saying they felt unappreciated and that DVUSD was not
offering
packages competitive with surrounding school districts.
“Trust
is a two‑way street,” Celeste Brown said. “We’ve
put more kids in the classes; we’ve helped raise AIMS
scores. Now it’s your turn.”
Mark
Kafouros, a 25‑year employee of DVUSD and a teacher
for 30 years, accused the district of not listening to
voters and using Prop 301 money for other expenses, when
it was meant to be directed toward teacher salaries.
Board
member Christy Agosta said later in the meeting that there
has been a lot of misinformation floating around and she
asked Hoover to do something about it.
Hoover
replied the information sheet he spoke about earlier was
one of the ways the district was going to try to combat
rumors. He added the district is also going to improve
their annual budget preparation in regard to the IBN team,
identifying the issues and having more detailed discussions.
In
the new agreement, the district states it will strive
to maintain class sizes of no more than 24 students in
kindergarten, 27
students in first grade, 28 students in second and third
grades, 32 students in fourth grade, and 33 students in
fifth and sixth grades.
