Support employees, schools reach contract deal

Friday, July 15, 2005 | 9:29 a.m.

The Clark County School Board on Thursday ratified a new, four-year contract with the Education Support Employees Association, including a complete overhaul of job descriptions and pay scales.

The contract comes after a re-classification study that was long overdue, said Joe Furtado, the union's executive director.

"This is the fairest contract we've had in at least 10 years," Furtado said.

The re-classification study compared pay scales for similar jobs in other regions and districts and recommended adjustments where appropriate. None of the district's 10,000 support employees will see their paycheck decrease as a result of the re-classification, Furtado said.

All employees will get at least a 6.25 percent pay hike over the next two years, as approved by the 2005 Legislature. Some employees will receive even greater increases depending on how their job was re-classified, Furtado said.

"Food service workers were clearly underpaid, and this contract addresses that," Furtado said. "There's also going to be increases for the skilled trades -- roofers, plumbers, electricians."

George Ann Rice, associate superintendent of human resources, said she put off her plans to retire this summer after 33 years with the district in part because she wanted to finish work on the new employee contracts.

The School Board met in closed session Thursday to discuss progress on the new contract with the teachers' union, which is expected to be approved at a later meeting.

School Board member Sheila Moulton praised the new contract and the collaborative spirit that led to its construction. For the past several years the district and the collective bargaining groups representing support employees, teachers and administrators have used a process known as interest-based bargaining. Unlike collective bargaining methods, which rely on two parties stating their demands at the outset, interest-based bargaining calls for making decisions by consensus with a mediator overseeing the process.

"Why anybody in the world would want to do things another way, I don't know," Moulton said.