The following points are highlights of the tentative contract agreement (TA) between the AFT and the District. [Click here to read the complete TA.]

• Since 2008, the State has not paid school districts the statutory COLA, which, by law, they must pay.  The State is supposed to repay that owed COLA when the economy recovers.  As part of this agreement, deferred COLA payments from FY 2008-09 through 2011-12, owed to the District by the state, will be paid to faculty in the form of salary and benefit cap increases when the state repays the deferred funds

• Professional Development funding shall remain at 1% and ALL unused funds may be carried over from year to year  — the new carryover language represents a gain from previous contract language.  Changes that were suggested by the Professional Development Committees to improve the program were also incorporated in this agreement.

• Part time seniority language has been strengthened (by the addition of new section 19.2.9)

• Full-time faculty who miss part of a day because of illness will be docked for one-half day rather than a whole day which is the current practice

• No changes were made to current FSA language.  A committee will be appointed to address issues around FSAs and any changes in contract language will be brought to the negotiating teams by May 1, 2012

• The current contract guarantees that once granted, a post-retirement contract will be for three years.  Because of this, the District has been reluctant to grant any post-retirement contracts during the past few years.  The changes allow for a faculty member to negotiate a post-retirement contract for up to three years and the agreed upon length will be specified in a contract between the faculty member and the corresponding administrator.