By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer
3 percent raises, other changes, will cost $600,000 more next year.

AUBURN – In an effort to trim costs and reduce its reliance on substitutes, the Auburn school system is asking teachers to cut down on their sick days.

If they do, the school system has agreed to split the savings with them.

“It’s an incentive,” said Assistant Superintendent Tom Morrill.

The sick-day agreement was written into the new teachers’ contract, which was approved by the School Committee Wednesday night. Officials are still working to determine the minimum savings they’ll need in order to share with workers.

The new contract covers more than 340 teachers and guidance counselors. They get 17 sick days a year, and that won’t change under the new contract. But Auburn hopes that a little extra money might get workers to cut back on sick time on their own.

The school system budgets more than $295,000 for substitutes, although that money also pays for substitute teaching assistants, bus drivers and others not covered by the teachers’ contract. Officials have not yet calculated how much they spend covering teachers’ sick days alone.

Besides the savings, officials believe a sick day reduction will also help them deal with a substitute teacher shortage. The school system has hired some of its substitutes to work as teaching assistants, leaving it short of qualified substitutes. Few new people have applied to replace them, Morrill said, because the state now requires that they pay $80 for background checks and fingerprinting. That’s more than a day’s pay for some substitutes.

“So they’ve just stayed right away,” he said.

The new contract takes effect this fall. It will cover teachers for two years.

The contract also gives teachers a 3 percent raise this year and next, increasing a first-year teacher’s salary to $28,000 by 2007-08. Officials believe the increase is necessary to remain competitive with other area school systems, some of which pay first-year teachers close to $30,000 a year.

The new contract keeps the current health insurance agreement. Under the plan, Auburn pays 95 percent of the cost for single employees, 93 percent of the cost for a single adult with children, and 90 percent of the cost for two adults, both with and without children.

The new contract is expected to cost the school system an additional $595,000 next year. Because costs fluctuate with retirements and new hires, Morrill said he is unsure how much it will cost in year two.

Auburn school officials are now working on their budget for next year. The superintendent is expected to present her budget recommendations, which will include the new contract costs, in March.

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