By Derek Liebig
The Granville Central School District and the Granville Administrators’ Association, with five members, reached agreement last week on a three-year contract.
Under its terms, the association members would receive salary increases in each of the next three years and there will no longer be a residency requirement.
The agreement needs to be approved by the Board of Education and ratified by the association.
If approved, the deal would be valid from July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2018. It affects only the district’s three principals, the assistant principal and the district’s CSE director.
It provides salary increases of 3.25 percent in the first year; 3 percent in the second year; and 2.75 percent in the final year.
The plan also provides health benefits through the Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES insurance consortium. Members of the association will be able to choose from one of four health plans offered. In the event that one of the plans is no longer available, the district agrees to offer a comparable plan.
But perhaps the biggest change was the elimination of the district’s residency requirement.
In the past, administrators were required to live within the district. Under the new agreement they can live where they please.
“We’ve begun to realize that it’s hard for these people to sell their homes and still make a profit,” said school superintendent Mark Bessen. “Do we prefer they live in the district? Yes, but we’re more understanding.”
Bessen said there have been instances where the residency requirement has been a deal breaker for potential employees.
“It has caused us to lose some candidates,” Bessen said, adding that some candidates have preferred living closer to the Northway, where spouses could more easily commute to their own jobs.
He said districts have increasingly eliminated the residency requirement from their contracts.
The contract also includes a clause related to the deposit of bonuses.
Previously any bonuses an administrator earned caused their average salary to increase. But the laws have since changed and bonuses don’t count as salary, therefore saving the district from having to pay the additional benefits incurred by a higher salary.
Bessen said the clause is “just a language cleanup.”
He characterized the negotiations as “amiable.”
“I think both sides did their homework,” he said.
The current agreement is set to expire on June 30.