COEUR d'ALENE -

A tentative contract agreement was reached Thursday between the teachers union in Coeur d'Alene, and negotiators for the school district's board of trustees.

If the contract is ratified by the school board and members of the Coeur d'Alene Education Association, which is the local teachers union, district employees will have two work days furloughed from their contract. The district will also reduce by 2 percent the amount it contributes to employee's family insurance premiums.

"This is not the package our employees deserve. I do believe it is a fair agreement," said Superintendent Hazel Bauman. "I'm pleased the association has once again agreed to meet us halfway."

By slashing the district's contribution to family medical coverage from 75 percent to 73 percent, the school district will save $156,000 for the next school year. The district will continue to pay 100 percent of the insurance premium for a single employee.

The district faces a $2.3 million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year. They will use $750,000 from reserves to help fill the gap, and will shift the custodial cost to clean up school cafeterias following meals from the district's general fund to the nutrition services budget, which is a self-sustaining enterprise fund.

The tentative agreement between the teachers and the school district also includes a plan to reinstate the two furlough days, should the school district receive additional funding from the state.

By the end of April, Idaho had collected about $74.2 million more in general fund revenue than forecasted just a few months earlier.

If projections stay on track, Idaho's K-12 public schools could receive up to $60 million more in discretionary funding from the state's coffers. Coeur d'Alene School District budget planners estimate the district could receive another $1 million.

The teachers union and school board negotiating teams agreed that the first $600,000 would go to the district to be used to purchase new textbooks and a new bus. The next $212,000 will be used to reinstate one instructional day agreed to be furloughed on the last day of school, and the next $196,000 will be used to reinstate one non-instructional day agreed to be furloughed from the teachers contract.

Any funds leftover from the possible additional disbursement from the state will be split between the district and employees who did not receive additional salary compensation for experience or additional education received. The employees will receive $2 out of every $10 received, and the district will receive $8 out of every $10 received. Eligible employees will receive the funds as a one-time stipend added to their regular November paychecks.

The tentative agreement is contingent upon the district's ability to maintain a fund balance, or reserve, of $3.8 million for the next fiscal year, and upon the district's receipt of an estimated 488 support units from the state to fund teachers' salaries and benefits.

The bargaining teams will meet once more to finalize the contract language and remaining details on the district's pay for performance planning process.

A new state law, part of Idaho schools chief Tom Luna's Students Come First education reform package, required for the first time this year that all school district labor negotiations be conducted in public meetings. The legislation also 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.

The meeting took place at Hayden Meadows Elementary School, and 15 members of the public, mostly teachers, turned out to observe the negotiations.

Trustee-elect Tom Hamilton was one of the observers. He stayed for the entire session which ended at 7:30 p.m.

"I'm happy to see that negotiations are being done publicly because it's always bothered me that most of the people negotiating on behalf of the school district stand to benefit from the contract," Hamilton said when the talks ended.

The team of negotiators representing the school district's board of trustees includes Steve Briggs, the district's finance director; Pam Pratt, the director of elementary education and the chief negotiator for the board; Edie Brooks, chair of the board of trustees; Kelly Ostrum, the district's human resources director; Lisa Pica, principal of Hayden Meadows Elementary School; Bauman; and Rosie Astorquia, the district's director of secondary education.

Negotiations will resume May 31 at 4 p.m. at Hayden Meadows Elementary School. The two groups are expected to separately ratify the agreement on June 6.