Oxford teachers get new four-year contract

OXFORD >> The Oxford Area Education Association and Oxford school directors have agreed on a new four-year teachers’ contract that expires at the end of June, 2022.

School board directors unanimously approved the new collective bargaining agreement Oct. 16 after membership of the Oxford Area Education Association had voted in support of the contract.

Teachers will get an annual salary increase of 2.75 percent for the length of the contract, in addition to one extra personal day.

The annual salary for Oxford Area School District teachers ranges from $37,800 for a beginning teacher with a bachelor’s degree, to $88,650 for a teacher with 25 years of experience and a master’s degree plus 30, according to the 2016-17 salary schedule. A teacher with 25 years of experience and just a bachelor’s degree earns $74,560 per year.

The highest annual average teacher salary in Chester County is at the Great Valley School District ($85,216) followed by Tredyffrin-Easttown School District ($82,984). In the region, the highest annual average teacher salary is at the Lower Merion School District ($99,253).

Health care contribution will increase to 7.5 percent for the first three years and 8 percent in the

final year of the contract. In the previous contract that expired Aug. 31, 2018, the school district paid 80 percent of the health premiums for full-time teachers and their dependents.

“Both sides were extremely collegial throughout the whole process, which can be very stressful considering all the hours we collaborated on this.” said Ryan Maule, president of the Oxford Area Education Association, who is band director at Hopewell Elementary School.

Maule thanked board negotiating committee members Mark Patterson and Howard Robinson and former board and committee member David Severino, as well as Business Administrator Brian Cooney, Director of Human Resources Michael Garrison and Superintendent David Woods for the work they did to

help hammer out an agreement.

Also at the meeting, it was announced that Oxford senior Hannah Bartlett, daughter of Yvonne and Scott Bartlett, was named a Commended Student in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program.

Approximately 34,000 Commended Students throughout the United States were recognized for their exceptional academic promise. These students placed among the top 50,000 scorers of the more than 1.6 million students who entered the 2019 competition by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Bartlett is a member of National Honor Society, president of the National English Honor Society and a member of the high school team in the Chester County Academic Competition. She has played on the tennis team for four years, the past two seasons on the varsity squad.