Tag: Collective Bargaining

News Release, September 17, 2019

Tentative Agreement reached between KPBSD and KPEA & KPESA
All 42 KPBSD schools will open with a two-hour delay start on September 17, 2019*

Soldotna, September 17, 2019—At 1:37 AM, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District (KPBSD), the Kenai Peninsula Education Association (KPEA) and the Kenai Peninsula Education Support Association (KPESA) reached a Tentative Agreement, for a three year contract for the time period of July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2021.
*All 42 KPBSD schools will open with a two-hour delay start on Tuesday, September 17, 2019. Student absences will be excused—simply call the school. Buses will run two hours later than usual in the morning. Sports and after-school activities will take place on a normal Tuesday schedule.

“After months of hard work and strained emotions the bargaining teams came together tonight in the spirit of compromise,” said Superintendent John O’Brien. “Together we can all now focus on our core mission: educating the children of the Kenai. I look forward to working together with our staff and this community to advocate for public education on behalf of our students. Together we will continue to innovate and lead our state with the high quality of education we provide to our students.”
“Working together, we were able to find a creative solution with the District that will keep kids in class and educators working,” said Anne McCabe, President of KPESA. “This process has drawn on for nearly two years and I’m pleased that we’ve reached a tentative agreement that values our educators and the students they work with every day.”
“This tentative agreement represents a big step forward for everyone working to improve the lives of Kenai Peninsula students,” said David Brighton, KPEA President. “I’m proud of the work we’ve done, and I’m pleased that we are able to find a compromise with the District.”
“I am extremely pleased that both negotiating teams have reached an agreement and the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District can get back to doing what it does best: educating our students through the many quality programs and activities it has put in place and preparing them for their future,” said Penny Vadla, Board of Education President. “We, as a board, are looking forward to a bright future.”

Details will be posted on the KPBSD Collective Bargaining webpage and the KPEA-KPESA.org later in the day on Tuesday.

Document: September 17, 2019 Collective Bargaining Signed Tentative Agreement

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KPEA and KPESA announce, “Kenai Educators Will Strike on Tuesday, September 17”

Soldotna, September 13, 2019—The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District (KPBSD) received notification tonight that, “the Kenai Peninsula Education Association and Kenai Peninsula Education Support Association intend to commence a work stoppage on September 17, 2019 at 6:30 a.m.” A work stoppage will trigger an Emergency Schools Closure of every KPBSD school.*
The District was caught by surprise with the 72-hour strike notice Friday evening because this afternoon the Associations’ spokesperson and District spokesperson were communicating with the fact that the District was preparing a counter-offer that would meet the cost concerns of salary and health care. The counter-offer would have potentially resulted in a Tentative Agreement.
On Saturday, the District will begin daily communications with families and staff about what to expect and how to prepare for the emergency schools closure that is slated to begin on Tuesday, September 17, 2019. The emergency schools closure will continue until a Tentative Agreement is reached between the Associations and District.
Links

• *What will happen if there is a strike?
• Collective bargaining webpage with proposals, meeting times, and handouts

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News Release: 
Collective Bargaining Update: September 13, 2019 
Soldotna, September 13, 2019—The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District (KPBSD) has requested additional information related to the September 12, 2019, offer from the Kenai Peninsula Education Association (KPEA) and Kenai Peninsula Education Support Association (KPESA).
The Associations’ included new retroactivity language in their health care proposal, and the requested information is for their method of calculating additional projected costs to the District. The District will be analyzing and reviewing those costs and intends to develop a counter-offer to bridge the health care divide.
Link: Collective bargaining webpage with proposals, meeting times, and handouts
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News Release
September 12, 2019 Collective Bargaining Update: KPBSD offer to KPEA and KPESA
Soldotna, September 12, 2019—This evening at bargaining, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District (KPBSD) presented a new offer to the Kenai Peninsula Education Association (KPEA) and Kenai Peninsula Education Support Association (KPESA) that offers fair salary increases and provides our employees additional money to address ongoing health care cost concerns. KPEA and KPESA offered a counter proposal to KPBSD that the District is evaluating. Links to the 9/12/19 offers are at the end of this information about the KPBSD offer to KPEA and KPESA:
 

1. This evening, the District offered to help reduce the health care contributions of its employees by depositing $918,748 into the employees’ health care reserve (savings) account. An account controlled by the employee representatives on the health care program committee. This additional amount of money is beyond what the independent Arbitrator recommended. This deposit is $250,000 more than the District’s August 24, 2019 offer.

 

2. This evening, the District offered to further increase its current contributions to the cost of health insurance by $3,600 per year per employee health plan member. Also not part of the Arbitrator’s recommendations, and $1,800 per year per employee health plan member more than the District’s August 24, 2019 offer. This portion of the District’s health care offer is an additional $859,186 more than the District’s August 24, 2019 offer.

 

3. The Arbitrator, after two days of hearings and hundreds of pages of exhibits, concluded, “The evidence is irrefutable that it is costing [the District] more to provide health care coverage…than virtually all of the other comparable Districts.”

 

4. The Arbitrator also recognized that the District’s employees are paying higher costs than those comparable Districts as well. She concluded that “This is reflective of numerous factors, not limited to the levels of coverage, the utilization of benefits, age of the workforce, access to care, and importantly, the inability to spread costs and risk over a larger population.” The District is not a contributing factor to the employees’ higher medical costs.

 

5. This evening, the District’s offer continued to follow the recommendations of the independent Arbitrator by increasing the KPEA and KPESA salary schedules by 3.5% over the FY19-FY21 duration of the Negotiated Agreement.

 

6. In addition, the District’s offer continued the Arbitrator’s recommendation that employees without access to higher salary schedule steps or the availability of a new column, receive up to an additional 3.5% salary increase over those fiscal years honoring their longevity with the District.

 

7. The salary schedule increases are in addition to automatic step increases built into those schedules for eligible employees. Those increases average 4.98% per year for KPESA, and 2.67% per year for KPEA.

 

8. Only the District, through its elected Board of Education, can balance District’s revenues and expenditures to ensure that the highest quality educational programs are provided. Over the years, heart-wrenching decisions have been made by the Board to close schools and eliminate positions, among other things, to balance the District’s budget. The Board will be facing those decisions again in this next budget cycle.

Following the 9/12/19 District offer, KPEA and KPESA presented a counter offer that the District is evaluating.
Links

• KPBSD Package Proposal to KPEA on 9/12/2019 (PDF)
• KPBSD Package Proposal to KPESA on 9/12/2019 (PDF)
• Supporting Additional Information 9/12/2019 (PDF)
• KPEA and KPESA Proposal to KPBSD on 9/12/2019 (PDF)
• Video: 9/12/19, Collective Bargaining, 5:30 PM – 9:10 PM

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Kenai Peninsula Borough School District (KPBSD) package proposal to the Kenai Peninsula Education Association (KPEA) and Kenai Peninsula Education Support Association (KPESA) to settle FY19-FY20-FY21 bargaining, provided during negotiations on Saturday, August 24, 2019.
 

PDF: 8.24.19 KPBSD Package Proposal to KPEA and KPESA to settle FY19-FY20-FY21 bargaining

 
This KPBSD Collective Bargaining webpage contains links to all past proposals and additional facts. (Updates will be made to this webpage on 8.26.19)
Facebook Live videos of bargaining (videos may be viewed through @KPBSD Facebook links):

• 8.24.19 video 1 of 3
• 8.24.19 video 2 of 3
• 8.24.19 video 3 of 3

Additional PDF handouts during bargaining:

• Actuary Cost Projection of KPEA KPESA Counter Offer to KPBSD on 8-13-19
• Cost Comparison of KPEA KPESA 5-13-2019 and 8-13-19 Offers to KPBSD
• 2019-08-24 KPBSD health plan benefits comparison to KPEA and KPESA 8-13-19 offer and Fairbanks Plan B and C benefits

 

Soldotna, August 15, 2019—The school district met with the Kenai Peninsula Education Association (KPEA) and Kenai Peninsula Education Support Association (KPESA) for several hours on Tuesday, August 13, 2019, for collective bargaining. A tentative agreement was not reached.
On August 13, 2019, the District proposed increasing its portion of the cap contribution to the employee cost of the health care plan by $250 month, or $3,000 per member (employee), per year.
The District agreed to pay $668,748 in a lump sum to the employee’s health insurance reserve account to return it to the minimum required balance of $750,000. This will eliminate the need for individual employees to repay $618 per employee during the FY20 school year.
During bargaining in May, KPEA and KPESA proposed the elimination of the Traditional Health Care Plan, and to migrate everyone to one High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP). The District offered to change its current self-funded High Deductible Health Plan’s benefit and coverage structure to mirror either the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Districts’ Plan B or Plan C. It would be the Associations’ choice.
The salary offer is 0.5% in FY19 (for current employees); 1% in FY20; and 2% in FY21. These increases are in addition to the salary increases employees receive for step movement on their respective salary schedules.
The Associations rejected the District proposal, and made a new offer to the District. A cost analysis of their health care offer is needed, and the District contacted its health plan broker to work with the actuary to provide that detailed examination of the Associations proposal. The time frame turnaround for the analysis is not yet known.
The District continues to be asked if there will be a strike.
If the unions decide to call a strike, they are required to provide the Superintendent of Schools with 72-hour notice prior to a work stoppage. The Superintendent of Schools will immediately notify all staff, parents, community partners, contractors, etc. of the start date of the strike. A media release will be issued.
Link: KPBSD proposal to KPEA and KPESA, August 13, 2019
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