Members of the Oregon City Federation of Teachers approved a three-year contract on Tuesday that will save money for the Oregon City Schools District.

“We had a general membership meeting early in the morning on Tuesday and ratified a tentative agreement,” said David Shafer, president of the 250-member union.

Shafer said he could not provide details of the agreement because the school board has not yet approved it. It is expected to go before the board next Wednesday.

“I can tell you it’s a three-year contract, and it involves salary and benefit concessions,” said Shafer. “I can’t be too specific right now until the board meets next week.”

Teachers had been working under one year contracts for the last five years, said Shafer.

“We were negotiating on an annual basis, which takes away from teaching and learning. We felt we needed three years of stability so we could focus on kids and our profession,” said Shafer.

“We also had a goal of retaining jobs, and we were ultimately looking for some fairness in the agreement. I think we accomplished that. It is acceptable and is concessionary,” he said.

“We actually met with the board privately on Sunday evening to iron out some minor differences,” he said. “There was some confusion on one last issue - which was not monetary - but on a language issue in the contract. It’s not abnormal. I think the board had a better understanding what we were trying to say and accomplish, and we had a chance to discuss that more with the board.”

Shafer said teachers have taken wage and benefit concessions in the last six years.

“We’ve not increased the base salary except in 2008, when it went up 1.5 percent,” he said. “I can tell you the base salary will not increase going forward in the next three years.”

The agreement includes more out of pocket expenses and contributions for medical benefits. “This is the third year in a row that we’ve done that,” said Shafer.

“Both sides are looking at preserving jobs, and getting back to teaching and learning. The three-year contract will give us that stability,” he said.

The district has lost 50 teaching positions in the last five years.

“It’s hurt our ability to provide the excellent services to kids,” said Shafer, who is also the automotive technologies instructor at Clay High School. “We lost some music and art, and a lot of career tech positions.”

The union and administration have been negotiating for a new contract since May, said Shafer.

“We set our ground rules, then a meeting schedule predominantly in June. We added dates, went through the process, and went as far as we could get,” he said.

The current contract expires on July 31.

Superintendent Mike Zalar said the new contract will save the district money, but he did not disclose an amount.

“I can’t release any details until it’s approved, other than the fact that it is concessionary in nature, and we do expect it to provide significant savings to the  district,” said Zalar. “I don’t want to say how much per year right now. I want to wait until it’s approved.”

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