Mat-Su Borough School District employees have ratified labor contracts that will be in effect for the next three fiscal years.
The last of the four contracts was ratified by the Classified Employees Association, which represents such workers as custodians and teacher aides.
The teachers' union approved its contract a month ago, while the new contracts for middle management and principals were OK'd before that.
The ratifications essentially mean contracts have been approved by the unions and the School District.
With contracts in hand, Ken Forrest, assistant superintendent of schools, said the deals will now help the district begin planning its budgets for the next three years.
"We project budgets out three to five years," Forrest said Thursday.
Approval of the contracts is important for that planning, he said, because employee wages and benefits account for about 88 percent of the school board's $205 million budget for this school year. The remaining money goes to classrooms and general operations of the schools.
Forrest said the contracts will be presented to the School Board at a meeting scheduled for Dec. 15.
The district expects to get only slightly more money from the Legislature than it got last year, reflecting a 1.06 percent increase in student enrollment, through a state formula that calculates to about $7,801 per student for the Mat-Su schools. The district also gets funding from Mat-Su property taxes.
"With that firm number we can now begin the budgeting process," Forrest said.
He also said the district hopes to reduce staffing numbers by not replacing some workers who leave. The result, he said the district hopes, will mean no layoffs.
If not enough people leave, the board might offer buy-outs to some employees based on years of service and the employee's age.
By T.C. MITCHELL
Anchorage Daily News