North Penn Reaches Contract Agreement With Teachers

The North Penn School District and its teachers union have reached a contract agreement.

The contract with the North Penn Education Association, which was approved Thursday, is good through June 2016. The teachers union has been working without a contract since July 1.

“Administration, the school board and NPEA’s leadership team have been working hard for more than a year to develop a contract that is fair,” said North Penn Superintendent Curtis R. Dietrich. He thanked the union members for their patience during negotiations.

The two-year agreement includes a salary freeze for the first half of the 2014-15 school year. After that, a modified salary schedule, which has an average increase of just more than one percent, will be in place, the district said.

The union also agreed to changes to their health care plan. The new plan includes increased premiums and in-network deductibles. It will take effect March 1, 2015 for teachers, the district said. North Penn administration and support staff have already agreed to similar health plan changes.

Under the new plan, employees who use tobacco products will have to pay a $100 per month surcharge if they are not enrolled in a cessation program.

“The school board had several goals in negotiating a new contract with NPEA which I believe we have met, including the importance of keeping the total cost of the contract within the Act 1 index which we did,” said Vincent Sherpinsky, school board president.

“We set out to develop an agreement that did not take away programming for students, did not use the district’s fund balance and that included shared responsibility from Union members in the future financial health of NPSD. Together, we achieved all of this and more,” Sherpinsky said.