Rochester School District Teachers Ratify New Contract
Rochester School District has a new two-year contract with its teachers.
Superintendent Kent Pekel today confirmed that members of the Rochester Education Association have approved the new employment contract which was presented to and approved by the Rochester School Board last month. The agreement is retroactive to the beginning of this school year and runs through the end of next June.
The new contract includes a 2% salary increase for the current school year and a 1.5% increase for the 2022-2023 school year. According to Pekel, the total two-year increase for salary and benefits will be 6.7% plus a one-time $500 stipend for all REA members who were employed at the time of the contract's ratification that will be paid at the end of the school year.
Pekel says the new contract includes some significant language changes that include:
- Paid paternity leave was increased from 5 days to 10 days.
Special education staff will be provided up to two days per school year to complete due process requirements. - The District will not require elementary teachers to attend more than six staff/committee meetings during morning planning time.
Through a Memorandum of Agreement REA and the District will establish a mentorship program for new teachers. - Continued with Memorandum of Agreement on teaching conditions including reimbursement for personal property, eyeglasses, or hearing aids; notification of staff before students who have a history of physical assault are placed in classroom; ability to request up to three days of paid time off for teachers who are physically assaulted; and steps to take if a teacher believes they are being harassed by a parent.
- Extracurricular assignments and extracurricular pay schedule were removed from the contract. This will be negotiated outside of the REA contract moving forward. For members who have departed from the District since the end of the 2020-2021 school year, only those who retired will receive retroactive pay.