Teachers agree to contract

The Seneca Valley Teachers approved the latest contract proposal. KDKA has the first report. More tomorrow.

Teachers in the Seneca Valley School District accepted their new contract.

The school board gave its approval to the deal earlier this month.

The five-year contract provides teachers with annual salary increases.

It also limits how much teachers would pay "out-of-pocket" for health care coverage.

Edit: More news links from WPXI, the Tribune-Review, Post-Gazette and the SVEA itself. The Trib had these quotes:

Seneca Valley School District teachers accepted an agreement recommended by a state arbitrator by a vote of 499-9.

"I have talked to about five parents so far, and we are very happy that this thing is over," said Ken Dash of Cranberry, the parent of two students in Seneca Valley, which endured a 24-day teacher strike last fall. "It never should have come to this. I am grateful to both sides, but I wish this had happened earlier."

Union officials were surprised by the lopsided approval in Seneca Valley. "I'm happy if they are happy," said Patrick Andrekovich, a Seneca Valley elementary school teacher and lead negotiator.

"Nobody has to worry about what's going to happen in the next several years," said Butch Santicola, a spokesman with the Pennsylvania State Education Association. "This was a very tough struggle in Seneca Valley. This had to be passed, or there was going to be difficulty."

The contract includes average annual wage increases of 4.3 percent and new health care contributions. Teacher salaries will increase 3.9 percent in the contract's first and second years, 4.3 percent the third year, and 4.7 percent in the fourth and fifth years.

The agreement calls for new health care contributions of $10 per teacher every two weeks starting in the contract's second year. The contribution would increase to $20 by the contract's fifth year.

"I think that everyone looks forward to returning to the prime directive of educating the students of the district," said Seneca Valley board President Dean Berkebile in a release.