4.5% salary increase, stipend adjustments among new agreement between BUSD and BTA

The Bonsall Teachers Association now has an agreement with the Bonsall Unified School District.

A 4-0 BUSD board vote Dec. 8, with Sylvia Tucker absent, approved an agreement retroactive to July 1, 2015, and effective through June 30, 2016.

"We were pleased that the board did approve the tentative agreement with the Bonsall Teachers Association, and we'll be looking forward to working with our classified union as well," said BUSD superintendent Justin Cunningham.

The agreement includes a 4.5 percent pay increase for certificated staff and also addresses stipends for coaching and other extracurricular activities. "We raised some of the stipends that we have been paying," Cunningham said.

The salary scale for certificated employees is based on years of teaching and on the quantity of professional development units earned for classes approved by the school district; the salaries under the new agreement range from $47,839 to $93,875. An additional $1,500 annual stipend is paid to a teacher who has a master's degree.

A teacher who agrees to be a substitute in another class during his or her preparation period has the choice of being paid at the hourly rate or accruing one unit of time for each class period covered. If enough units are accrued to equate to a regular teaching day, an additional personal necessity day will be earned although those days must be used in the same school year and no more than two days per school year will be allowed. Faculty members appointed to curriculum development or staff training positions will be paid at the hourly rate for that additional time.

Coaches at Sullivan Middle School and Bonsall High

School will receive an annual stipend of $2,000. Elementary school track and field coaches will be paid a $500 annual stipend.

"We have very, very good coaches and we definitely wanted to persuade them to continue coaching," Cunningham said.

The athletic director at Sullivan Middle School will receive a $2,000 stipend. The stipend for the Bonsall High School athletic director is $3,000, and in the event the stipend is not amended before Bonsall High School has all four grades the athletic director will receive $4,500 for 2016-17 and $6,000 beginning in 2017-18.

The Bonsall High School athletic director and the Legionnaires' coaches will also be paid the government mileage rate for travel to official league games and playoff games.

The non-athletic stipends include $1,000 for elementary school, middle school, and high school yearbook advisors, $1,000 for elementary school Associated Student Body advisors, and $2,000 for the ASB advisors at Sullivan Middle School and Bonsall High School. The band directors at Sullivan Middle School and Bonsall High School will be paid $1,500 apiece, as will the choir directors at the middle school and high school.

The Gifted And Talented Education coordinators at each school will be paid $500 at all levels. The technology coordinator at each school will have an annual stipend of $4,000 at the elementary school and middle school levels with the Bonsall High School stipend being $2,000 for 2015-16 and increasing to $3,000 for 2016-17 and $4,000 for 2017-18 unless otherwise amended. The lead technology teacher at Vivian Banks Charter School will also have a $4,000 stipend, and any other teacher who is appointed to a position of lead teacher will also receive that stipend. Because Vivian Banks Charter School does not have an assistant principal, the lead teacher handles administrative duties in the absence of the principal.

Teachers attending sixth grade camp will receive an additional $500 stipend, and if one of those days is a school holiday and the teacher remains at the camp for that holiday he or she will be given another workday as a compensatory day.

A speech and language pathologist will be paid an annual stipend of $9,000, as will an autism specialist. The district's English Language Development coordinator will be given a $3,000 stipend.

The coordinator of the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment program will have a stipend of $2,500. BTSA support providers will be given a $1,250 stipend.

The district's maximum contribution to medical insurance benefits, which had been an amount equal to the benefit rate for a health maintenance organization (HMO) employee plus an additional $2,000 per year for an employee and a family member, was increased to the HMO benefit rate plus $3,000 per year for an employee and a family member for 2015-16. The additional amount will increase to $4,000 annually as of July 1, 2016.

The amendments also provide elementary school teachers with a 15-minute preparation period concurrent with the students' morning recess.

The agreement also included a non-contract commitment for 2015-16 to provide teachers with three days of professional development at a rate of $325 per day; that professional development can occur either on site or on-line.

The agreement also stipulates that if incoming revenue to the school district decreases, the Bonsall Teachers Association will work with the district to design a corresponding reduction of total compensation and if district revenue increases the district and the Bonsall Teachers Association will work to design a corresponding increase in compensation.