UPDATED: Thursday, October 4, 2012 --- 8:05p.m.

The Board of Education voted Thursday night 7-0 to pass all contracts.

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UPDATED: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 --- 9:30p.m.

Information from John Matthews, MTI:

Teachers ratify their contract. It would be good until June 2014. The Board of Education will vote Thursday.

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Posted: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 --- 6:50p.m.

Superintendent Jane Belmore released the following statement today after the district and employee unions reached tentative agreements through its collective bargaining process.

“Because of the recent court ruling on Act 10, the Board of Education decided that it was in the best interest of our district to collectively bargain with our employee unions. We’ve negotiated in good faith and in a timely manner, and we have come to tentative agreements with all of our represented units to bring before the Board for a vote.

“Throughout these discussions, we’ve put student learning in the forefront, with a respect for the fact that our employees are the people who directly or indirectly impact that learning.

“Our tentative agreements will give the district flexibility to better meet the learning needs of students and successfully implement our Achievement Gap Plan, while at the same time maintaining protections and security for our staff.

“These agreements maintain protections and security for our staff by:

- maintaining the current salary schedule,

- maintaining current retirement benefits,

- giving the district the ability to raise base wages depending on financial outlook, and

- limiting the ability to increase employee contributions to health insurance.

“The agreement reached with teachers gives the district flexibility to meet student needs and implement programs to close gaps in student achievement by:

- modifying the work preservation clause to allow for flexibility in programming to meet student learning needs,

- modifying the transfer process to allow the hiring process to start sooner, to support the district’s efforts to diversify its workforce,

- gaining time for professional development and planning time, and

- allowing flexibility to provide evening parent conferences.

“These agreements will ensure a contract for our employees for the 2013-2014 school year and help improve student learning for all. We appreciate the hard work put in by our unions to reach these agreements.”

All unions will now take tentative agreements to their membership for ratification votes. The Board of Education is scheduled to vote on all contracts on Thursday.