A description of the typical terms and conditions of 2004–2005 negotiated agreements of Class III school districts in Nebraska

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the typical kinds of terms and conditions of employment in 2004-2005 negotiated agreements in Class III Nebraska school districts, and to determine if there was a relationship between enrollment size and five selected terms and conditions of employment: base salary; highest salary allowed on the salary schedule; district cost of one full-time teacher\u27s dependent health and dental benefit; total yearly non-professional leave days offered; and combined highest salaries possible for the head coaches of football, volleyball, girls basketball, and boys basketball. The population of this study was 218 of the 219 Class III Nebraska school districts during 2004-2005. Because the enrollment of Millard was much larger than any other Class III school districts, Millard was not included in the study. The districts were placed into three categories: large, medium, and small. The subjects were selected using proportional stratified random sampling with 20% of each group selected. All district superintendents returned their school district\u27s negotiated agreement and a completed Terms and Conditions Worksheet. The agreements were studied to determine the themes and categories of the terms and conditions of employment. The data for the five dependent variables was collected from the worksheet provided by each school district. A one-way analysis of variance was computed, and an alpha level of .05 was used on statistical tests. During the qualitative part of this study, five major themes and 31 categories across those themes were discovered. The five themes were salary and other pay, benefits, leaves, employment conditions, and contractual language. The results of the qualitative part of this study did show that base pay, highest salary, total yearly non-professional leave days, and combined coaches\u27 salaries were significantly different in school districts of different enrollment size. The discrepancy between the district cost of one teacher\u27s health and dental benefit in school districts of various enrollment size was not significant