Following nearly two years of back-and-forth on contract negotiations and forced into a stalemate with regards to health benefits, the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) and the Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB) announced Monday that they have reached a tentative agreement.
The agreement—subject to ratification by TALB members and then sent to the Board of Education for approval—will save the district some $1.5 million in health care costs in 2013 by altering plans (such as increased co-pays). This was in lieu of previous hopes from the district side of having a 95% coverage cap on what they covered instead of paying entirely for all benefits.
“We’re pleased to announce this tentative agreement which preserves affordable, high quality health care for our teachers, nurses and librarians,” said Christopher Steinhauser, LBUSD Superintendent, in a statement. “At the same time, we commend union leadership for agreeing to a collaborative method of controlling long-term costs.”
The state’s third-largest school district has already cut some $300 million from its budget since 2008 and how to deal with the rising cost of health care for employees was a clear point of contention, currently costing the district upwards of $21,000 per teacher under the most expensive plans offered.
According to a release from both parties, the new agreement sets the school district’s maximum contributions for medical premiums at 100 percent of the 2013 PPO rates for employee, employee plus one, and family. In order to keep up with the rising costs of health care, the school district contribution will then increase by 3.5 percent on January 1, 2014, and will then automatically increase by 3.5 percent every year thereafter. Starting on January 1, 2014, if the plan’s rate increase is greater than 3.5 percent, the employee will pay the difference; in the event that the rate increase is less than 3.5 percent, the difference is then credited to mitigate increases in future years.
The District also agreed to a plan that would reduce the number of work days for teachers in the Head Start program instead of eliminating the program altogether, as the Board of Education’s cuts had previously called for. This school year, Head Start teachers’ work year will be reduced by five days, from 193 to 188. The following school year will be reduced by six more days, from 188 to 182. It is the District’s intention to maintain the Head Start program.
Voting will be conducted by TALB Site Association representatives and will occur on November 15 and 16 at school sites.
Read the entire tentative agreement here.