District, teachers’ union give ground

The Eugene School District and its teachers’ union, the Eugene Education Association, inched a little closer to agreement at their bargaining session Tuesday night over concessions for the 2011-12 school year.

The union dropped its demand for a pay raise from 0.6 percent to 0.25 percent, and the district countered with salary cuts of 1 percent, vs. its previous offer of 1.75 percent in cuts. The district is proposing a 188-day school year with four unpaid furlough days, vs. its previous proposal of a 186-day school year, which included six furlough days, two of them paid holidays.

The paid holidays were not part of the latest proposal. The district’s initial proposal when bargaining began on April 13 was to eliminate all five of the teachers’ paid holidays.

The teachers moved from an offer of a 182-day school year for 2011-12, with 10 unpaid furlough days, to a 184-day year with eight furlough days.

The district is still proposing freezing longevity “step” increases for 2011-12 at 50 percent and maintaining monthly health insurance contributions at $1,100, while the teachers, in a second counterproposal Tuesday, relented on restoring full step funding on Feb. 1, 2012, to freezing steps at 50 percent for the school year. They now want a return to full step funding on June 30, 2012, and a raise in the monthly contribution to $1,150. The district proposed that eligible employees would advance a step on the salary schedule on July 1, 2012, the first day of the 2012-13 fiscal year.

The sides were still talking late Tuesday night.