Updated: Tuesday, September 17, 5:53 a.m.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and educator unions struck an eleventh-hour deal on a contract Tuesday morning to nearly avoid a district-wide strike. The district and unions came to a tentative agreement for a three-year contract at 1:37 a.m. This comes after more than a year and a half spent at the bargaining table.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District says it will release details of the tentative contract agreement later today. All public schools on the peninsula will open with a two-hour delayed start. Sports and after-school activities will take place on a normal schedule.
Orginal Story:
Educators in Alaska’s fourth largest school district are poised to strike tomorrow over rising health care costs. The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District teachers and support staff announced their plan Friday after having spent over a year and half in contract negotiations.
Kenai Peninsula Borough school district teacher’s union president David Brighton said faculty at 42 regional schools have been working under the terms of a contract that expired last summer.
“So we’ve taught and worked an entire school year with no contract and we've begun this year without a contract,” he said.
That affects roughly 1,000 educators who the unions say are unhappy with the terms of health care costs. An arbitrator’s report saidpeninsula teachers and aides pay higher premiums than their counterparts around Alaska.
Brighton said they’re voting with their feet.
“Many of us have seen good friends leave,” he said.
The heart of the matter is health care premiums. An early agreement capped teacher’s contributions. Anything over, was split between the district and employees 50/50. But the cap was busted years ago and there’s an impasse over what to do next. Teachers want the cap raised -- the district has said it can’t afford it.
Pegge Erkeneff is the district’s chief spokeswoman. She said the district is trying to meet faculty half way.
“That is why the district added $1.1 million to its last offer that it provided on Thursday night,” she said. “And the district is working to creatively find a solution of what can be fair and affordable for the district and for our staff.”
The unions’ negotiating teams left the offer on the table. But Erkeneff said the district is looking down the road.
“The district is looking at what it can afford, not just for this year, but going forward into future years so that we can continue to offer a high quality of education for our students,” she said.
A strike was authorized by the rank-and-file earlierthis spring. That authorizes a fall strike that could affect 8,000 students across the Kenai Peninsula. The district has said it wouldn’t send in non-union substitutes: 42 schools would shut down from Soldotna to Kachemak Selo.
“We don't have other people to come in and work,” she said.
Homeschool support programs and extracurricular activities would be canceled. That could also affect district facilities used by the wider public -- including swimming pools and gyms.
“So the full schools' closure means that everything is closed," she said.
The school board will meet tonight and bargining teams may return to the table. It's a possible a strike could be avoided by tomorrow morning.
