WESTMINSTER : Schools, Teachers Reach Pay Accord

The Westminster School District Board of Trustees has reached a salary agreement with the teachers union after months of stalled negotiations.

The district’s 340 teachers had been working without a contract since last June.

Their new agreement includes 5.64% salary increase and an increase in fringe benefits of about $1,400 a year. This increase makes minimum starting pay in the district $21,519 and top pay $50,571. Salary is based on years spent in the district and the number of academic units completed.

The agreement is retroactive to July 1, 1989, and will expire June 30, 1990.

“At least we got this contract settled before we have to start negotiating for a new one,” said trustee Margie L. Rice.

Negotiations reached an impasse in the fall when the school board and teachers couldn’t agree on how staff development days should be used or what the salary should be for attending summer workshops, said Barbara Winers, assistant superintendent of personnel.

Westminster Teachers Assn. representative Carolyn Anderson said teachers are happy to have negotiations behind them.

“You’re always glad to reach settlement,” said Anderson. “We wish it could have come to closure much sooner than it did.”

Winers said she expects negotiations for the 1990-91 contract to begin in April. “It’s a perpetual process,” Winers said.