FLORENCE — A compromise has been reached after a yearlong standstill over Boone County Schools teacher salaries. It comes just a month before negotiations are to begin for next year.

        Teachers will get an additional $150 this year beyond raises approved by the school board last summer.

        Teacher union and district officials reached the tentative agreement on Tuesday, just days after teachers threatened to picket this week's school-board meeting.

WHAT'S NEXT

A proposal to raise teacher salaries in Boone County Schools by $150 will go to members of the teachers union this month and to the school board in March. Both sides must approve the change.

        The proposed settlement must still be voted on by all members of the teachers union and the school board.

        “This is where we've agreed to go,” Superintendent Bryan Blavatt said. “It still has to be hammered out a little bit.”

        Union and district leaders have been negotiating teacher raises for the current school year since March.

        In July, the school board approved a state-mandated 2.2 percent cost-of-living increase for teachers plus an additional raise, averaging 1.9 percent, based on years of experience.

        However, the union wanted an additional $300.

        Mr. Blavatt has said the teachers' request was reasonable, but that the district did not have the money.

        But this week, some state funds were reallocated to reach the $150 compromise — an amount the district had offered in earlier negotiations but rejected by the union, Mr. Blavatt said.

        Last week, more than 350 teachers met to discuss the contract dispute, deciding to picket the upcoming meeting.

        However, Debbie Wooten, president of the Boone County Education Association, the teachers union, said earlier this week that if a tentative settlement was reached, union leaders would ask teachers to cancel the planned demonstration.

        And a negotiating meeting scheduled for today before the board meeting has also been canceled, Mr. Blavatt said.

        Ms. Wooten was unavailable Wednesday for further comment.

        Boone County is one of only a dozen districts in Kentucky with bargaining agreements, where teachers and school boards negotiate contracts that include details about job conditions, salaries and benefits. Kenton County and Newport Independent Schools are the only other Northern Kentucky districts with such agreements.

        Kentucky does not have a collective bargaining bill, which would require school boards to allow employees to negotiate a contract. Boards, such as Boone County, have agreed to collective bargaining, but they can also dissolve the contracts at any time.

        Union leaders will now take the proposal to union members for approval, and the school board is expected to vote on the increase at its March meeting, just in time to start over for next year's salary increases.

        “It's going to be deja vu. We won't have the money next year either,” Mr. Blavatt said.

Evidence taken from gunman's home
Gunman's letter to Enquirer described his despair
Text of Pickett's letter
Blackwell may join Bush team
Foundation lands ex-education chief
Gap opts out of deal with county
Drugs send six students to hospital
Edgewood teachers fear for jobs, fret about students
Hamilton man guilty of woman's murder
Suspect's statement describes slaying of girl, police say
Bacterial infection kills nine dogs in pound
Butler statue pays tribute
Fairfield might double political-sign season
Fund aims to preserve school aid
Improve special ed, auditors urge CPS
Teachers union warns schools not to retain Burton principal
Blessing wants job in Bush energy agency
Boone teachers might get $150
Campbell to hire planning director
Car hits officer; passenger dies after police fire on car
Council colleagues balk at new rules on donors
Downtown property tax increase floated
Eastern Ky. drug sweep casts light on area use
Ex-gov. $300M in hole
Family court plan clears Senate panel
Federal grand jury indicts wife
Heart transplant fails to save NKU student, 21
High-risk insurance pool up, running
Ky. warns parents who owe support
State receipts short of expectations
Kentucky News Briefs
Tristate A.M. Report