COEUR d'ALENE - The contract between the local teachers union and the Coeur d'Alene School District Board of Trustees was ratified Monday by both groups.

The agreement, tentatively reached May 26, includes two furlough days and a 2 percent reduction in the amount the district contributes to family health coverage premiums.

The contract also includes an agreement to reinstate the furlough days should the school district receive surplus revenue funds from the state in July.

"It went much faster because we can't negotiate as much," said Pam Pratt, the school district's director of elementary education and chief negotiator for the board.

A new state law, part of Idaho schools chief Tom Luna's Students Come First education reform package, restricts collective bargaining between teachers and public school districts to salaries and benefits. Previously, class sizes, grievance procedures and teacher training and development plans were negotiated.

"I think because of the trust that we've built over the last five years between the two teams, before June 10, the last, best offer day," Pratt said. "I know our team doesn't ever want to go there."

Pratt said members of the board's negotiating team heard that there was no dissension among the members of the Coeur d'Alene Education Association, the local teachers union.

The teachers association ratified the contract at an undisclosed location several hours before the board's ratification. Members of the local teachers union were not immediately available for comment.