Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board directors have two significant votes coming up in their last two meetings before the end of the academic year. On May 20 they’ll be voting on a proposed teachers’ contract and next month it’s the budget for 2013-2014 that comes up for a vote.

The board revealed elements of the tentative agreement with teachers during the May 13 work session. It’s a two-year deal that keeps the current salary structure.

The starting and top salaries remain as they are now, said Superintendent John Sanville, $48,520 for a starting teacher with a bachelor’s degree, and $102,741 for a teacher with 16-plus years experience, a master’s degree and 60 graduate school credits.

All teachers would get a one-time bonus of $900 the first year of the contract, and top-of-scale teachers would get another $1,100 in the second year. The rest will get a raise in the second year based the number of graduate credits they have and the number of years in the district.

Additionally, there’s a one-time 5 percent increase for supplemental contracts.

He said the proposal encourages teachers to go after masters’ and doctoral degrees and provides more time for instruction.

Sanville said there would be an overall increase in district costs of 2.19 percent per year.

The Unionville-Chadds Ford Education Association, the teachers’ union, was scheduled to vote on May 16, Sanville said.

One sticking point for two school board members is the elimination of an opt-out clause that has the district paying teachers with families to opt out of the district’s health plan. The opt-out goes away in the second year of the contract. That could be costly to the district, according to directors Jeff Hellrung and Keith Knauss.

The family plan costs the district $15,000 per plan per year, and that the district pays teachers with families an extra $3,200 per year to opt out of plan.

There are 43 teachers who are on another plan provided by a spouse’s employer. If all 43 families came back into the U-CF plan, the district would save $140,000 from not paying the buy-out. However, it would cost the district $600,000 per year above current costs to pay for the plans. There are also 41non teachers who have opted out.

Hellrung and Knaus have written a letter to the editor published in this week’s issue of ChaddsFordLive.com. They said it’s an agreement that they will oppose because, while it’s not a bad contract, it’s not good enough. The letter can be found here.

Not all the directors are opposed.

Jeff Leiser admitted there’s a “lot of conjecture” over what might happen, but said it’s a good contract because it controls salaries.

Frank Murphy called the agreement fair, while Holly Manzone said it’s reasonable for both parties.

“We have enough votes to pass it,” she said.

Manzone added, though, that there’s no way to know now how the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, will affect health insurance costs in the future.

In a prepared press release, School Board President Eileen Bushelow said, “We feel this contract is positive and fair to both teachers and taxpayers, and takes into consideration the economic conditions of our community.”

Directors also considered a possible spending plan for the next school year, voting 7-1 during the work session to approve the proposed final budget. The plan, as proposed, calls for total appropriations of $72.7 million with increases in property taxes.

Millage rates would be 25.73 mills in Chester County and 21.71 mills in Chadds Ford Township, the only district township in Delaware County. Those tax rates reflect an increase of 2.18 percent in Chester County and 1.26 percent in Chadds Ford.

A mill is a tax of $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.

Those tax rates can change by the June 17 vote.

“The millage is not set until June,” said Business Manager Robert Cochran. “The actual budget is not set until June.”

The board’s vote allows the proposed budget to be advertized and for residents to review the plan before the June meeting. This allows for input and possible changes before the June vote.

Keith Knauss cast the lone vote against the budget because of the tax increase.

One of the issues affecting the final budget is the matter of $160,000 that the board wants the district to cut from its expenses.

Sanville said the district could cut $90,000 by restructuring the office and possibly save another $70,000 by cutting back elsewhere. There is also the possibility that the board could take the money from its reserves in the Pennsylvania School Employees’ Retirement System.

Knauss said after the meeting that the district has been setting aside surplus revenues and putting it in a savings account for possible use when it would have to pay more for PSERES. However, that money can be used for other reasons. If $160,000 of it went into the general fund, Knauss said, the aggregate tax increase of more than 2 percent would be cut down to about 1.65 percent.

The money has not yet been deducted from the expenses in the proposed budget.

Charts and graphs on the proposed budget can be found here.