The Akron Faculty Association has a new contract that calls for 16.2 percent in salary increases over four years.
The union, which has about 150 members, recently ratified the package, which is retroactive to July 1, 2007, and ends on June 30, 2011.
It calls for pay increases of 3.7 percent retroactive to July 1, 2007; 4 percent for the 2008-09 school year; 4.1 percent in 2009-10; and 4.4 in 2010-11.
School Superintendent Robin Zymroz said, “I felt that the negotiation process gave us shared satisfaction in reaching the new contract. Union President Edward Haley, a high school guidance counselor, was unavailable to comment Friday.
The union recently ratified the contract by a vote of 100-1. The Board of Education approved the package in a special meeting earlier this month.
Zymroz blamed last year’s change in the superintendency on the delay in hammering out the contract. Zymroz, whose last job was assistant superintendent of the Iroquois School District, was hired last July.
She said the district will not know the full costs of the contract until the open enrollment in the health insurance plan ends next week.
A key change in the contract calls for union members to pay 15 percent — up from 9 percent — of the premium for traditional coverage from the district’s lone health-care provider, Blue- Cross BlueShield. That change is expected to yield savings for the district.
Beginning with this coming school year, the district will match employee annual contributions to medical reimbursement accounts up to $150, an increase from the current $115.
The contract also calls for the union and district to research plans offered by other health insurers, with the stipulation that there would be no increase in the percentage of premium contributions or reduction in benefits.
Other facets of the contract:
• Beginning with the coming school year, the district will match up to $200 of each union member’s annual contribution to the pension fund.
• The maximum number of sick days over the life of a union member’s employment was increased to 270, from 250.
• Retirement incentives are set at $10,000 for each retiring employee if two to seven retirements are submitted; $15,000 if there are eight or more.
• School nurses, also part of the union, with a different salary schedule, will receive the same percentage of raises.