Administrators union OKs contract

The Oceanside Board of Education approved a five-year agreement with the Association of Administrators, Supervisors and Department Chairpersons on May 8 that will reduce members’ pay increases.

According to Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown, the contract, dated April 30, will save the district $50,000 to $100,000. “The alternative would probably be to cut jobs,” Brown said. “There’s no guarantee we won’t cut jobs, but there’s an implicit understanding that if we stay under the [state-mandated] tax cap, we won’t have to cut jobs.”

The new contract supersedes the final two years of the previous agreement, under which administrators would have received 2.5 percent increases each year for the remainder of the contract, as well as a step — an incremental salary increase based on years of service — each year.

Instead, the nearly 30 members of the union will receive a 1.5 percent salary increase for the first year of the new contract, beginning on July 1, as well as a step increase. The next year, they will get a 2.5 percent increase and a step increase halfway through the school year, in February 2014.

For the final three years of the deal, the administrators will receive a 2 percent salary increase at the beginning of each year but will defer their steps until February 2017, when they will get three half steps.

According to Brown, the new contract is practically the same as the one signed by the Oceanside Federation of Teachers last month. “This will be proportional, because there are only 26 administrators,” he said. “It’s a significant savings, and I think they want to try and help the district stay under the tax cap without cutting jobs.”

In addition to smaller salary increases, the administrators also agreed to pay 18 percent of their health care premiums, rather than the 15 percent previously agreed on.

David Rose, president of the union, explained that the members agreed to the new contract because of the current state of the economy. “Essentially, we are concerned about the community. We understand that these are all difficult financial times for everyone and we want to do our part,” said Rose, who is also the director of world languages and English as a Second Language for the district. “We’re all on the same team. We are here for the students, and this is the right thing to do at the time.”