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The voting period ends today on a tentative contract agreement that will give teachers in the Berkeley public schools an 11.5 percent salary hike over a two-year period. 

The final ballots must be cast by 5 p.m., and union leaders will count ballots this evening. Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Barry Fike said a final count may be available by the end of the night, although it could be delayed because some votes will be delivered through the school district’s internal mail system, so they may not arrive until Wednesday morning. In any case, the vote will be known before the start of Wednesday night’s school board meeting, where the contract agreement will go before the board for its ratification. 

The teachers are voting on a contract agreement that includes a 2 percent raise for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and a 9.5 percent Negotiators from the union and the school district reached an agreement in the early morning hours of May 25, after a marathon 21-hour negotiation session. That followed months of public and private confrontations over the state of teachers’ salaries in the Berkeley Unified School District. 

The BUSD estimates that it will cost almost $3.2 million to fund the two years of salary increases, requiring additional cuts in the district’s budget. More than $1.1 million already has been slashed, and more recommendations are likely to be made soon if the contract is ratified by the union today and the school board Wednesday. 

And more cuts could be made down the road. The agreement calls for the BUSD to continue raising teachers’ salaries through the entire life of the contract, which would run through June 30, 2003. By the end of that school year, total compensation for teachers must be at the 55th percentile of a list of 31 comparative districts around the state. Right now, the BUSD is near the bottom of that pool. 

“This is going to be a challenging task, because it’s a moving target we’re going after,” said School Board President Joaquin Rivera. “Every year we’ll have to reassess to determine where we’ll have to be. A lot of people are focusing on the first and second years of this agreement, but the last two years are the most critical ones.” 

The BUSD intends to fund most of the first two years through the anticipated increased funding from the state, made possible by California’s booming economy. The catch is, other districts are planning the same strategy. So, while Berkeley teachers will be getting paid more, they won’t necessarily be getting paid more than their peers in other districts if the BUSD were to rely solely on the new state money. Making Berkeley salaries more competitive with other districts was a central goal for the union in the negotiations. 

“We expect that many districts will be doing the same thing, and that’s why the key to this contract is the third and fourth years, because that’s when we really are guaranteed that Berkeley teachers’ salaries will become competitive,” Fike said. 

The agreement calls for starting teachers to be paid $36,337 – current entry-level pay is $31,278 – and educators on the top end of the pay scale will see their salaries increase from $54,846 to $63,335. The deal also addresses the “tier inequities” in the salary schedule, which had created situations where teachers with the same years of experience were paid differently. Teachers who had gained experience in other districts were winding up with bigger paychecks than their colleagues who had spent their entire careers in the BUSD. 

The major salary increases will benefit K-12 teachers, but instructors at Berkeley Adult School also will get paid more under the deal. 

Two other changes, largely unnoticeable to the general public, will be made under the proposed agreement. The teaching “duty day” will be increased by 30 minutes this next year and an additional 10 minutes by the 2002-2003 school year, and three staff development days will be added over the life of the contract. 

“I think it’s a good statement to make,” Fike said. “It’s a symbolic gesture to show that in Berkeley, we’re striving not only to have our students achieve above average, but to pay our teachers above average and work an above-average duty day and work year.” 

The increased duty day will allow for minutes to be “banked” for such activities as minimum days at the elementary schools, parent-teacher conferences at middle schools, and extended lunch at the high school.