Custodians Agree to Rockwood Salary Package

An agreement that dictates the next three years' of salaries and benefits between and its custodians was approved Wednesday.

Carol Jackson, president of the Rockwood Custodial Education Association (RCEA), said the agreement passed with 100 percent of members' votes. She thanked Rockwood's staff and Board of Education directors Thursday evening, stating this year's negotiations only took one and a half meetings to achieve.

"I remember our first negotiations took over 20 meetings," she said.

The agreement provides the following salary increases per school year:

The agreement has a clause for the 2013-2014 school year only, which re-opens salary negotiations if an increase or decrease in excess of 5 percent occurs in the district's total operating revenue (during the 2012-2013 school year) from local or state sources not otherwise obligated.

Click here to review the entire custodial agreement, which will be effective July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2015.

Custodians hired or promoted after April 1 do not receive an annual increase on July 1. However, if their salary is at the entry level of $10.77 per hour, and the entry level is increased by Rockwood's Board of Education, the custodian rate will increase to the new entry level.

One new agreement component is that Rockwood will provide medical, dental, vision, life and long-term disability insurance for full-time custodians at a level commensurate with full-time teachers.

Another change is that a committee will meet and define, as needed, the responsibility of the personnel assigned to respective Rockwood buildings or departments for snow and ice removal duties. The committee will include representation from the custodial department, as appointed by the RCEA president, who presently is Carol Jackson.