After almost a year of deadlock and disagreement, PAT has prevailed. The District has agreed to honor our new contract language, and ensure members get paid for Masters degrees earned prior to receiving a teaching license, according to the following terms:

1. The District is granting column salary credit for PAT members with fully completed graduate degrees.  This credit will no longer be based on whether the degree was obtained in connection with the employee’s license. In addition, the District will not limit credit to a single graduate degree.
2. The District will grant salary column advancement for graduate credits earned after licensure and outside of a degree program. They can now be treated as “Master’s Plus” credits.
3. The adjustments will be retroactive to the July 1, 2017.

Members should know that making these adjustments will be labor intensive and time-consuming process. However, the District has already pulled some of the necessary data together from employee files in conjunction with related salary grievances.