After six years of negotiations, 280 support staff employees in the Katonah Lewisboro School District are now working with a contract.

The school board officially approved the agreement Thursday night. The support staff association had OKd the contract earlier in the week.

"The board of education and the Katonah Lewisboro School Board Association have taken the final step in bringing to a close our goal of agreeing on a contract that is fair to the community and to the KLSSA," said Mark Lipton, school board president, following the 7-0 vote.

The seven-year contract term extends from July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2013, and includes no retroactive pay increases but stipulates that all active association members receive a one-time payment this year, retroactive to July, 2011—equal to a 14.9 percent wage increase over the entire duration of the contract, according to district officials. 

In other words, active employees will receive a salary adjustment first effective July 1, 2011; they will not receive retroactive salary increases for each of the years preceding.

Employees who were laid off during the negotiations of the contract will receive a retroactive increase for the period that they worked for the district.

A wage freeze will be in effect for the 2012-13 school year, the final year of the contract.

Among the other contract provisions, employees are converting from a flat contribution to a percentage contribution toward their health care costs: 4 percent for those earning a base salary under $35,000, 6 percent for those earning between $35,000 and $55,000 and employees earning over $55,000 will contribute 8 percent.

The contract also reduces the minimum number of bus drivers the district is required to employ from 66 to 60, which was one of the sticking points for the school board after receiving recommendations from a state mediator following the first four years of failed negotiations.

The net increase of the new agreement represents a 1.35 yearly increase over the term of the agreement, according to a statement released by the district Friday. "The agreement does not carry a financial impact to the current year’s budget, nor will it impact next year’s budget, since a hard freeze is in place for the 2012-13 school year," the statement reads.

At the meeting, Lipton also thanked Paul Kreutzer, superintendent of schools, and Carol Ann Lee, assistant superintendent for human resources. He thanked Jeani Granelli, president of the support staff association, for tackling "difficult and complicated and emotional issues" that got the contract resolved. 

"The primary reason we are here is to serve students," he added, saying the support staff personnel—including bus drivers, office staff, monitors, teaching aides, teaching assistants and custodians—play crucial roles in educating the district's 4,000 students. 

The school board has now fulfilled its goal of completing collective bargaining agreements for both the support staff and the district's nine nurses, which was approved in December.

Nursing staff had formerly bargained under the support staff association but their new contract was attached as an addendum to the teacher's contract and resulted in wage increases that average 2.91 percent per year beginning with the 2006-07 school year.