HOWLAND – After more than a year of bargaining, a local teachers association and SAD 31 officials are still at odds over a new contract.

Mediation between the school district and the Pentagoet Teachers Association failed. The two groups now are heading for fact-finding.

The dispute resulted in teachers picketing the school board during its meeting last month. To make their cases, both sides have been sporting signs, which read, “Another MSAD 31 Teacher without a contract” and “Another MSAD 31 board member saving tax money by offering a fair contract.” The current three-year teacher contract expired on Aug. 31, 2000. The association represents 52 of the district’s 69 teachers.

At issue are teacher pay raises and health insurance costs. Teachers say the proposed pay increases will be eaten up by higher insurance costs. School officials say that is not true.

Gerald Hutchinson, the teachers’ chief negotiator, said the association wanted a “fair” two-year contract. “If we don’t get a 3.5 percent pay increase in both years, then it is a step backwards and we are not improving,” he said pointing to a 3.5 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index.

Paul LaForge, chairman of the school board, said teachers had been offered several fair contracts. “They are making an annual raise and an annual step increase [a pay increase based on experience]. That is something a lot of us haven’t had in years,” said the chairman.

Beth Turner, chairman of the district’s negotiating team, said the board worked hard to offer a package that provided teachers with a pay raise and maintained teachers’ percentage contribution for health insurance, despite significant premium increases.

Currently, the school district splits the cost of health care 90-10 with its teachers. The total cost of a family plan is $8,682, with the district paying $7,814 and teachers paying $868 a year. The district spends $340,688 for health insurance.

Superintendent Terri Krass said health costs could rise 25 percent to 30 percent next year, which means a family plan could cost more than $10,000.

“We want teachers to have good health care coverage,” said Krass. “We know we have to offer it to be competitive. That is not the issue, it is a matter of what we can afford,” she said.

Krass said higher fuel costs meant higher student transportation costs for the district. She said the district has many needs including keeping students’ educational programs current, major facility repairs and new school buses. “These are all difficult choices this board has to make. We want to offer a fair package, one that is fair to both the teachers and the taxpayers of the district,” she said.

Hutchinson said the district needed to improve pay rates to attract and maintain quality teachers. He said between six and eight teachers had left the district and more were looking elsewhere for better pay and benefits. He said one teacher went to Bangor where the pay was $5,000 higher.

The teachers’ chief negotiator said teacher morale is at an all-time low. “We are concerned about becoming a second rate school system,” he said.

“I think they have to be cognizant of the economic times we are in,” said LaForge.

He said student enrollments are declining and people are moving out of the district. He said workers at Eastern Paper’s Lincoln mill had just accepted wage and benefit concessions to keep the plant alive and one of Howland’s major employers had relocated.

As for teachers going elsewhere for higher pay, LaForge said it is a teacher’s personal choice where to work. Turner said teachers might be paid more, but higher housing or commuting costs would eat up most of the pay difference.

Hutchinson said the district’s step pay increases were low compared with 29 school districts, which receive similar amounts of state subsidy. He said SAD 31 ranked between 21 and 25 out of the 29 in all cases except one.

According to the current contract, three-quarters of the 20 pay steps provide a $750 raise for teachers. A $2,000 pay step is given when teachers achieve 20 years of experience. Beyond 20 years of experience, there are no more step increases.

The teachers’ chief negotiator said the district has a veteran teaching staff with lots of experience. He estimates that nearly half are close to the top or over the top of the 20-step pay scale.

Currently, a teacher with 20 years or more experience holding a bachelor of science degree is paid $36,600 and a teacher holding a master’s degree is paid $38,300. School officials say these base rates are for 180 days of work and do not include pay for extra curricular activities or other duties.

Officials on both sides said several offers and counteroffers had been made in the last year.

Hutchinson said association members last February rejected a proposal developed as the result of a three-day marathon bargaining session, but the team has yet to receive an adequate offer to bring back to its membership for another vote.

“We have been proposaling each other to death for the past year,” said Hutchinson.

Hutchinson said teachers are wondering why the school board is spending so much money on lawyers to fight grievances and for mediation and fact-finding. “The money they are spending could have been put towards a new contract,” he said.

LaForge and Turner said once the union brought in a professional negotiator, the board felt it needed legal representation. From Oct. 14, 1999, to date, the district has spent $13,282 on legal fees for teacher negotiations. From Feb. 14 to Dec. 31, 2000, the district spent $7,643.50 to defend itself against grievances filed by the teachers’ union.

Officials on both sides won’t disclose the details of the district’s final offer, but sources say it is a one-year contract providing pay increases of between 4 and 6 percent and keeps the current health insurance program.