Terms and Conditions of Employment in Collective Bargaining Agreements Negotiated by School Boards and Teachers Associations in Pennsylvania School Districts for 2012-2013

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the typical terms and conditions of employment in 2012-2013 negotiated agreements in Pennsylvania school districts, and to determine if there was a relationship between enrollment size and 5 selected terms and conditions of employment: base salary; highest salary; teacher contribution for one full-time teacher\u27s personal and dependent health benefit; total yearly sick, personal, bereavement, and emergency days offered; and steps in the grievance process available to teachers who are union members. The population of this study was 498 of the 499 school districts found in the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) spreadsheet entitled Enrollment by LEA, determined by the PDE as of October 3, 2011, and published by the PDE on April 12, 2012. The School District of Philadelphia was not included in this study because the enrollment of Philadelphia was so much larger than the other schools. The 498 districts were divided into 4 four categories, from the largest to the smallest. Four random lists of 12 numbers were generated, using the range of each group. Districts were selected that matched the random numbers generated. The agreements were studied to determine the themes and categories of the terms and conditions of employment. The data for the 5 dependent variables was collected from the worksheet compiled by the researcher. The study revealed that the terms and conditions of employment were found in negotiated agreements with somewhat similar frequency, however, the scope of bargaining varied significantly throughout the negotiated agreements studied. A statistical analysis of the findings indicated there was a relationship between school district enrollment size and the 5 selected terms and conditions of employment: all were significantly different when compared by school district size. An analysis of the findings shows that local issues affect agreement negotiation topics. Limitations of this study included the difficulty in generalizing results for other years, and generalizing findings beyond Pennsylvania