Upper Arlington board OKs contract

Teachers in the Upper Arlington school district have a new, three-year contract.

The agreement, which the school board approved unanimously Monday night, covers 518 employees. It will go into effect this summer and expire in June 2021. Teachers will get a 2.5 percent salary increase for 2018-19 and about 2.4 percent in each of the following two school years.

As of August, a new Upper Arlington teacher with a bachelor’s degree and no experience will earn $45,293, an increase of about 2.5 percent over this school year. That beginning salary will increase to $46,380 in August 2019 and $47,470 in August 2020.

Teachers’ salaries are paid on a step schedule. They earn pay increases based on years of experience and their amount of education.

Next school year, the salary schedule will top out at $104,096 for a teacher with 30 years of experience and a master’s degree plus 40 college credits. If a teacher goes on to earn an educationrelated doctorate, he or she receives an extra stipend of 2 percent.

In 2015, during the previous contract negotiations, the Upper Arlington teachers union and the school board had agreed to freeze the salary schedule for two and a half years, between 2015 and 2017, to save the district money. Teachers received a 2 percent bump in August 2017. Health care also grew more expensive.

Other changes in the new contract include extra time for maternity and paternity leave, including for new adoptive parents of older children. The cost of teachers’ health insurance is rising, and by 2020 the teachers will be required to pay a percentage for co-insurance.

The school board president and union leaders could not be reached for comment.