District 46 Teachers Ink New 3-Year Deal

Bongo wishes to congratulate the board and teachers of Prairie Grove's District 46. The board and union has come to a 3-year contract agreement. They never made the channel 7 news and there was never a threat to strike. How boring; just the way contract negotiations should be!

According to the Northwest Herald,

"The contract calls for a total salary compensation increase of 3.25 percent in the first year, 3.42 percent in the second year and the third-year increases will align with the tax cap. In the previous contract, which began in the 2005-2006 school year, the overall average increase was 5.6 percent in the first year, 5.4 percent in the second year and 5.3 percent in the last year."

There is another provision in the contract which calls for money to be put in health spending flex accounts. You can read the District 46 story here.

Wait a second. That deal is much less lucrative than the deal that the HEA leadership so soundly convinced their members to reject two weeks ago.

So the parents in Prairie Grove can rest assured that their children will be in the classroom for the next three years, uninterrupted. Meanwhile, the parents in District 158 must still stand by and watch greedy HEA leaders continue to insist that D 158's fund reserve, you know, the one that is earmarked for future hiring of teachers and for the avoidance of expensive borrowing for cash flow needs, goes instead to their salaries.

Four paws up, District 46!