Methacton School Board Ratifies Teachers’ Contract

The Methacton School District’s Board of Directors voted at their Sept. 23 regular school board meeting to ratify the terms of their agreement with the Methacton Education Association (MEA), the teacher’s union, for a contract running from 2013 through 2017.

The terms were ratified in a majority vote, with all board members voting affirmatively except for Howard Jones, who voted against the terms. Jones resigned from the board, having prepared a letter of resignation, and left the meeting early.  

MEA members had ratified the agreement on Sept. 5, and the particulars of the agreement were presented to the public on Sept. 17, then posted to the website the day after, according to a school district press release made available after the Sept. 24 meeting.

The negotiation process had gone on for six months, according to school board president Joyce Petrauskas.

The four-year agreement, valid from July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2017, provides a teacher salary increase of 1.9% in the first year, 3.27% in the second year, 1.94% in the third year and 3.04% in the fourth year.

The average net increase in salary is 1.84% when taking into consideration healthcare, and salary concessions, and other issues. The average salary for Methacton teachers is in the middle of the range for Montgomery county teachers’ salaries.

“Without our teachers, all the best books and state-of-the-art facilities and technology don’t mean a thing. It’s not all that that makes learning happen—it’s teachers,” said Petrauskas in a statement she prepared to read at the meeting. “And while we all on the board should be aware of the extremely important job they do, we must also represent the needs of our community. I believe we have done just that.”  

Contributions that the district will make towards employee benefits are in the middle of the range in Montgomery county. The bargaining unit agreed to healthcare concessions of $81,000.

Thirty-one long-term substitute teachers and those receiving position reductions were not part of the bargaining unit, and, as a consequence, the district will not increase contributions to the teachers’ Public School Employee Retirement System.