After years of seeing "Support Dryden Teachers" bumper stickers and reading about contract negotiations and protests, it's nice to see "Dryden board approves teachers' contract," with this news:
Both sides were enthused that this [6-2] approval came five months before the current contract expires at the end of June.
"It's the earliest we've ever had a contract done, going back as far as we know," Mary Ellen Bossack, president of the DFA, said.
"It's just remarkable. The whole tenor of the district is just a lot more positive," she said.
Mark Crawford, the district superintendent, echoed Bossack's sentiments, noting that with regularly scheduled meetings between the administration and DFA representatives throughout the year, the negotiation process went very smoothly.
Both parties recognized a give and take in the negotiation. For teachers, an increase in health insurance co-pays and deductibles was part of the trade-off for an annual four percent pay raise, among other things.
The article also notes that the board appointed Jeff Bradley to fill John Curatolo's seat.
If you live in the Ithaca City School District, there's lots of news about the library district vote next Tuesday, February 7th. The Journal kicks off three days of articles with:
The print edition also includes a list of voting places, which appear to be the same as the locations for voting in Ithaca school board elections.
Posted by simon at February 2, 2006 12:15 PM in Ithaca Journal , public finance , schools (Dryden)