The proposed Post Falls teachers contract for the next school year includes a 1 percent salary increase for all certified staff, plus two steps forward on the salary schedule for years of experience.

"The negotiating team believes that the tentative agreement is a fair agreement between the Post Falls Education Association and the Post Falls School District," said Mark Mason, lead negotiator for the PFEA, the teachers union.

"It is our feeling that the plan will help to benefit every teacher in some way while still providing and maintaining all of the programs the district offers to our students."

PFEA members will consider the proposal on Wednesday. The Post Falls School Board will consider the plan on Monday at 5 p.m. at City Hall, followed by the public hearing on the district's overall budget.

The tentative teachers agreement comes after three meetings between district and PFEA negotiators.

"The climate of the negotiations was mutual respect," said Becky Ford, the district's assistant superintendent. "We're very pleased to have a proposed agreement before the end of the school year."

Ford said this is the earliest time in recent memory that a tentative agreement has been reached. There have been a few years in which negotiations spilled into the summer, but never the fall.

"It's harder to get the entire association back together to ratify the contract (once summer vacation starts), and it's one more responsibility that's no longer on the plate," Ford said. "We've had quite a few people retire or resign, so this will give us plenty of time to hire those replacements."

Ford said she doesn't believe the changing dynamics of the school board was a factor in negotiations wrapping up earlier than usual. Glorie Ward and Carol Goodman, both backed by the Reagan Republicans when they won seats in May, will start their service in July. The PFEA backed their opponents Dave Paul and Julie Hunt.

Teachers can receive salary bumps through experience, education and general raises.

Mason said the reason for the two experience steps forward under the tentative agreement is to make up for steps that were frozen in previous years.

Some teachers - those who don't yet qualify for experience salary steps - will only see the 1 percent across-the-board increase, not the steps increase, Ford said.

"This agreement is a little bit for everyone," she said.

The district and PFEA's tentative agreement also calls for increasing the insurance deductible from $350 to $500.

"The reason for the (insurance) increase is to help offset the raise in premiums from the district's insurance provider," Mason said.

Mason said the original proposal PFEA brought to the table called for a 1 percent salary hike for all teachers, three steps on the experience salary schedule and no change to the insurance plan. Ford said the proposal gave the district something reasonable to work with from the start.

The two experience steps would increase the district's budget an estimated $420,000. The 1 percent across-the-board salary increase adds $168,000 to the district budget. The insurance deductible increase will save the district about $55,000.

Ford said the district's teachers are now caught up on education steps from when salaries were frozen during the recession. Teachers still have not gotten credit for one step of experience from when salaries were frozen.

"The association agreed to two experience steps (rather than three) in order to help us balance our budget," Ford said.

The district has about 300 certified staff.

The district will also recommend to the school board that classified staff will get a 1 percent pay increase. Neither classified employees nor district administrators fall under the negotiated agreement between the PFEA and the district. District officials said they have tried to give classified employees raises if teachers get them.

The proposed agreement also calls for taking no personal leave during the last three weeks of school. The current agreement states no personal leave is allowed during the last two weeks.

"We had a difficult time getting subs this spring after our number of subs went down," Ford said. "May gets tight with subs."

* At Lakeland, the district and teachers' union have met three times. The fourth meeting will be held on Wednesday.

"At this point, we're not close (to a proposed agreement)," said Tom Taggart, the district's finance director.

The public hearing on the district's budget will be Monday at 5:30 p.m.

The 2013-14 fiscal year begins July 1. Districts are required to have balanced budgets in place by the end of June even if contract-related budget items are still pending.