School employees will get to sound off

Provo District officials, teachers to discuss proposed contract

By Laura Hancock
Deseret Morning News
Published: Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2005 12:42 a.m. MDT
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PROVO — Provo School District employees will get a chance to sound off Monday on the proposed contract for the 2005-06 school year — an opportunity some claim has been denied in the past and is a key element of a lawsuit filed Monday by 34 employees against the district and education unions.

The meeting — which will include district officials as well as union representatives — will be next Monday at Timpview High School's auditorium at 4 p.m. Teachers and classified employees will then vote whether to ratify the contract at their assigned schools through Aug. 26.

Details of the proposed contract have not been revealed.

"I think we just decided we'd present the package on that Monday," said Linda Peterson of Bonneville UniServ, which represents most teachers in the three Utah County school districts. "I think we'll kind of have to wait until Monday and let them ask questions."

The meeting will be perhaps the first time in the school district's history that employees have met to discuss a proposed contract with school district officials.

Employees have met regularly with union representatives following negotiations, notably last spring when they asked union representatives not to accept the district's initial proposed offer for 2005-06 and to take a break from negotiations until August.

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Some of the teachers involved with the suit filed Monday sought help from the Utah Education Association to sue the district over terms in last year's contract that effectively eliminates a post-retirement benefit for supplemental Medicare coverage for the bulk of current district employees.

Because the UEA has been named a defendant in the suit, it is unlikely an attorney for the group will follow through on the previous request. Instead, a private attorney representing 34 teachers and classified hourly employees filed the suit, which asks a judge to reverse the decision to disqualify employees from the "Medicaid" benefit at the heart of the suit.

The 34 employees claim union representatives did not communicate the details of the 2004-05 contract regarding Medicaid until after it was signed. The employees also claim they were provided limited opportunities to participate in the ratification vote on the contract.

Provo district employees are the only school employees in Utah County without a contract for the coming year. Nebo and Alpine school districts finalized theirs in May.

Nebo employees will receive a 2 percent cost-of-living raise and about 1 percent raise in "steps and lanes," which are increases given to employees at milestones such as years of service or additional education, said Al Mosher, Nebo's director of human resources.

Medical insurance premiums for Nebo employees will increase 7.6 percent.

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