BETHLEHEM \u2014 Bethlehem Area School Board on Monday approved a four-year contract with its support personnel that will boost hourly wages at least $3 by 2030.<\/p>\n
The school district\u2019s collective bargaining agreement with the Bethlehem Area Educational Support Personnel Association takes effect July 1, 2026, and runs until June 30, 2030.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work gets more difficult as each day goes on. We really appreciate them and their willingness to continue working with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Area School Board President Michael Faccinetto<\/p>\n
The support personnel\u2019s union represents instructional assistants, technical assistants, associate nurses, general duty aides, child care aides and child care leads.<\/p>\n
Board President Michael Faccinetto said support staff members \u201ctirelessly\u201d do hard jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work gets more difficult as each day goes on,\u201d Faccinetto said. \u201cWe really appreciate them and their willingness to continue working with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Union President Kim Kluska declined to comment on the new agreement via the district\u2019s spokesperson.<\/p>\n
Wage increases<\/p>\n
Of the positions represented by the support personnel union, technical assistants will see the largest increase in their hourly wage through the life of the contract.<\/p>\n
Next school year, their hourly wage will be $23.46. It will increase $4 to $27.46 by the 2029-30 academic year.<\/p>\n
Associate nurses will be paid $28.75 an hour next school year. By 2029-30, their hourly wage will increase $3.75, bringing it to $32.50.<\/p>\n
Throughout the contract, the hourly pay for instructional assistants will increase from $24.46 to $27.71 \u2014 that\u2019s a bump of $3.25 during the four-year period.<\/p>\n
General duty aides, child care aides and child care leads all will see their hourly wages increase $3 over the course of the agreement.<\/p>\n
As of 2026-27, general duty aides who started with the district before July 2016 will be paid $23.19 an hour, and those who started later $19.65 an hour.<\/p>\n
By the end of the contract, general duty aides who were hired before July 2016 will get an hourly pay of $26.19, and those who were hired later an hourly pay of $22.65.<\/p>\n
The hourly wage for child care aides will be $17.68 next school year, and by 2029-30, those workers will get $20.68 an hour.<\/p>\n
Child care leads will get $19.85 an hour in 2026-27. By 2029-30, their hourly pay will increase to $22.85.<\/p>\n
Associate nurses who have their registered nursing degree or any support staff members who have a bachelor\u2019s degree related to their position will get an additional 50 cents an hour on top of their base rate.<\/p>\n
Other perks, paid time off<\/p>\n
Full-time support personnel can take advantage of a tuition loan program through the district for reimbursement of the cost of courses toward a two-year or four-year degree related to their district position. <\/p>\n
There are parameters for the program outlined in the contract.<\/p>\n
As for time off, child care aides and leads who hold 12-month positions receive 10 vacation days annually.<\/p>\n
Twelve-month technical assistants are allotted 11 vacation days after one year with the district, and more with seniority. After 14 years of service, they get 20 vacation days.<\/p>\n
Any support staff members who have 10-month positions get no vacation days.<\/p>\n
As for sick days, associate nurses, general duty aides and instructional assistants accumulate 10 sick days each year. Technical assistants accumulate 12.<\/p>\n
Child care aides and leads accumulate 10 or 12 sick days annually depending on whether they have a 10-month or 12-month position, respectively.<\/p>\n
All support personnel receive two emergency days they can deduct from their sick leave each year, except for child care aides and leads, who only get one emergency day.<\/p>\n
Emergencies could include a court appearance, family member\u2019s graduation and more as outlined in the contract.<\/p>\n
Finance, HR updates<\/p>\n
In other board news, school directors voted Monday to approve an opt-out resolution for the district\u2019s 2026-27 budget. <\/p>\n
That means they agree not to hike taxes above the Act 1 Index, which for Bethlehem Area is 4.2%<\/p>\n
School directors also approved the commitment of $4.5 million from the district\u2019s fund balance for future capital improvements.<\/p>\n
They uncommitted $7.1 million to complete upgrades at Liberty High School\u2019s lab center facility.<\/p>\n
School directors also uncommitted $646,865 to complete roof replacements at Freemansburg, George Wolf and James Buchanon elementary schools.<\/p>\n
Additionally, school directors uncommitted $569,930 for boiler and hot water replacements at Freedom and Liberty high schools.<\/p>\n
Also on Monday, school directors approved Daniel Terry as the next principal of Hanover Elementary School.<\/p>\n
Terry will start at Hanover on Jan. 5 and be paid a $116,500 annual salary.<\/p>\n
He comes to the position from within the district, serving currently as an assistant principal at Northeast Middle School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM \u2014 Bethlehem Area School Board on Monday approved a four-year contract with its support personnel that will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,33501,33502,1412,33504,155,154,33503],"class_list":{"0":"post-62311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-area-school-board-news","10":"tag-bethlehem-area-school-board-support-personnel-contract","11":"tag-bethlehem-area-school-district","12":"tag-bethlehem-four-year-contract-support-personnel","13":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","14":"tag-bethlehem-news","15":"tag-bethlehem-school-district-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}