Schools in Calaveras County will be back to full operation this morning after striking teachers ratified a new contract last night. The agreement covers most of what the teachers wanted.
"We ended up with a contract, which is the best thing in the world because we get to go back into our classroom," says Lorraine Angel, president of the Calaveras Unified Educators' Association.
Teachers walked off the job last Thursday over salary, safety, and class size issues. Angel says after some give and take, the district met them on those concerns.
"By a combination of a four-percent raise and adjustment to our salary schedule, we were able to get people raises in the range of about six percent," says Angel. So, we're feeling really positive about that because we'll be able to attract and retain those good teachers here in Calaveras County."
The union had initially asked for a 6.5 percent salary increase. Angel says the agreement comes close to that, with nearly 6 percent, depending where teachers are in the salary scale.
Safety and class size issues were also settled.
The contract is for a two year period.
Calaveras Unified covers most of the county with 2,900 students from elementary to high school.
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