Daily Sitka Sentinel from Sitka, Alaska • Page 1

Member of the Associated Press A I I Thursday, November 15,1990 Volume 52 No. 222 Sitka Alaska 35c Accord Reached in School Negotiations ByWILLSWAGEL Sentinel Staff Writer After months of hard negotiating, the Sitka School Board and NEA-Sitka announced this morning that they had reached a tentative agreement on a two-year teacher contract At a news conference in the district offices, Assistant Superintendent for Business Tom Brown said the package, if approved, would cost $400,000 over the two years of the agreement NEA officials said they hoped to arrange for a ratification vote by the teachers some time before next Tuesday's school board meeting. If approved by the NEA-Sitka membership, the contract would go into effect as soon as it was approved by the board. The proposed contract grants teachers a three percent raise retroactive to the beginning of the school year and another three percent raise to go into effect in January 1992. The salary for a new teacher with an undergraduate degree will be $28,323 effective at the start of this school year, and $29,173 starting in January, 1992.

Teachers with 12 years of experience will be paid $52,964 for the nine-month year, and $54,553 after January 1,1992. The changes will place Sitka teachers in about the middle of the range of pay for teachers in Southeast and statewide, representatives of both sides agreed. Graduate degrees will not be required to achieve the highest levels of the pay scale, as the board had pro- posed, but more graduate credits will be required than at present "That's the compromise," said NEA-Sitka negotiator Moira McBride. "They were looking toward more professionalism and master's level programming and on-track programming. And we were looking at a large number of our people that have taken a bachelor's track, because that was available "The compromise that we got works for both because it adds professionalism, but it encourages us to take more graduate-level classes and that is available.

The non-track graduate classes are available periodically throughout the state and in this area." The tentative agreement raises the cap on health insurance costs that will be paid by the district to the present premium rate, so teachers will not have to pay anything in at present. However, said Brown, an amount equal to about 1 percent of teacher salary in addition to the raise is to be put into an escrow to help offset expected future increases in benefits. The district presently pays up to $6,400 annually for health insurance for a teacher with a family. Teachers will retain the right to strike granted them by the legislature last year, which Brown described as "the district's biggest compromise to teachers." "Right down to the very last minute, even after mediation, we would have to seriously consider going to arbitration over that issue," Continued on Page If Job Applications Jam State Personnel Office JUNEAU (AP) A flood of applications to fill an unusually large number of state jobs, most vacated because of early-retirements, has caused a backlog in the personnel system. Dave Otto, director of the state Personnel Division, said it is about six weeks behind in processing applications.

The Legislature this year approved an expansion of the early-retirement program, which since October 1989 has led about 1,000 state employees to retire early. Most of those retirements have come since May, when the program was expanded to make more employees eligible, said pave Stout state retirement supervisor. Another 300 workers have taken standard retirement in the past year, Stout said Wednesday. The backlog also is partly due to departments wanting to fill openings in case Wally Hickel decides to impose a hiring freeze after he takes office Dec. 3.

"There's always a typical fear level, both with what happens inside as well as what's happening outside -with people thinking now might be a good time to get into state government" Otto said. A rush to openings has combined with triple the normal number of applications to overwhelm state personnel workers, he said. The division's Juneau office has nearly 3,000 applications to process, compared with the usual 500. In many cases people may apply for dozens of jobs to improve their chances of finding work. A similar six-week backlog also exists in the division's Anchorage office.

There are about 1,000 separate job classifications in the state personnel syslem. An applicant needs to be listed on the state register to be eligible for most jobs. Before the deluge, it usually took about two weeks to score an application and rank a person on the register, Otto said. Higher-level professional staff have been re-assigned to examiner jobs to reverse the delay in ranking applicants, and the situation should be back to normal in three weeks, he said. Some departments are able to bypass the state register and handle applications directly for essential or unique positions, such as registered nurses.

Happy Occasion School district officials and teacher negotiators smile this morning after a news conference announcing results of talks. From left, Assistant Superintendent for Finance Tom Brown, NEA-Sitka negotiating chairman Ted Howard, Superintendent Lewis Holloway, School Board President Ernestine Griffin and NEA-Sitka spokeswoman Moira McBride. (Sentinel photo by Will Swagel) Independence Party Wants CoghilVs Seat FAIRBANKS (AP) The vice chairman of the Alaskan Independence Party says the Senate seat formerly occupied by Lt Jack Coghill sho'uld go to the Independents and not the Republicans. "Our position is the seat goes to the party of the guy holding it and Jack Coghill is a registered member of the Alaskan Independence Party," said Wm. "Frenchy" DeRushe.

"It's not a done deal until a judge says so." The Independence Party's central committee has nominated DeRushe fill Coghill's Senate post The Republicans, however, are pushing for the appointment of Rep. Dick Shultz, R-Tok. Coghill, first elected to the Senate in 1984, has sided with his old party rather than his new friends. "I was elected to that seat as a Republican," Coghill said. "It's a Republican seat.

One way or another, they (the Independence Party) can argue it. But I'm not going to get in a public dispute with them in the paper," he said. In August Coghill won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor by defeating Senate President Tim Kelly, R-Eagle River. In mid-September, Coghill withdrew from the GOP ticket to run with Wally Hickel under the Alaskan Independence Party banner. Coghill at first maintained his Republican Party affiliation, but later switched his voter registration to the Alaskan Independence Party to avoid legal challenges to his candidacy.

Tarn Cook, the Legislature's chief legal counsel, said it's doubtful the Independence Parly's claim would be upheld in court. The statute governing appointments to fill vacancies in the Legislature states that a replacement "shall be a member of the same political party as that which nominated the predecessor in office." Cook has interpreted that to mean that Republicans will get to choose Coghill's successor, since he was nominated for the Senate as a Republican. Coghill's old Senate seat encompasses House districts 17 and 18, an area stretching from North Pole through Glenallen and Tok, across the central Interior south of Fairbanks to Nenana and Healy on the Parks Highway. Assuming Republicans get the post ihe groundwork appears to have been laid for Shultz's appointment. "I think the decision has already been made to give Dick Shultz the seat," said Rep.

Mike Miller, R-North Pole. Although others have reported that the Senate's new president, Dick Eliason, R-Sitka, has already reserved Shultz a seat on the Senate Finance Committee, Shultz said this week that nothing is final. "Jack Coghill has made it clear for several months that he would like to have me as a replacement," said Shultz, a Tok businessman and former, educator recently elected to a fifth term in the House. Republican Party leaders in District 17 and 18 still must meet and confirm the appointment, Shultz said. It's traditional for local parties to provide the governor with a short list of candidates to fill vacancies in the Legislature.

The governor's appointment must then be ratified by party members in elective office in the body where the vacancy exists. The process does not always go smoothly. For example, Gov. Steve Cowper balked when GOP leaders nominated Dick Randolph to fill the vacancy created by Sen. Don Bennett's death several years ago.

Cowper rejected the nomination and sought to appoint the senator's widow, Bev Bennett. In the end, Ken Fanning was appointed to Bennett's seat in a compromise jetween the governor and GOP leaders. Shultz said he has no idea who is under consideration for his own District 17 House seat. "I don't know who put in their names yet" Shultz said. "Approximately 10 to 12 people are probably interested." Advisor Says Needs of Pioneer Homes Change By SHANNON HAUGLAND Sentinel Staff Writer The average age of entrance to the Alaska Pioneers Homes has risen from 65 to 81 since its beginning, but more money is needed to meet the residents' changing needs, the Chamber of Commerce was told Wednesday.

Former Silka Mayor John Dapcevich, a member of the governor's advisory board for Pioneers Homes, talked about the history and his concerns about the future of the Homes at the Chamber's weekly luncheon meeting. The first Pioneers Home was established in Sitka in the old U.S. Marine barracks in iyi3 witn tne purpose of "providing a home for indigent pioneers who have become dependent," he said, so they might be able to live out their final years "in peace and with dignity." Quoting from the Home's original charge, he said the Home was also to "provide for the transfer of persons who have become insane to the asylum providing for the care and custody of insane persons." The territory appropriated $10,000 for the first year's operation, and the average age of those admitted was 65, he said. In the early 1930s the territory appropriated funds for the first Pioneer Home built specifically for that purpose in Silka, and it was completed in 1934. New homes have been added to the system, in Fairbanks (1967), Palmer (1972), Anchorage (1977), Ketchikan (1977) and Juneau (1988), and millions of dollars have been spent on renovations of all the facilities.

Today some of the buildings need plumbing and ventilation improvements and more medical equipment However, Dapcevich said, there are only enough funds available for making fire and life-safety repairs. Two levels of care were available in the first home: residential and nursing care. The residential services included room and board and housekeeping and laundry services. Priority admission to the nursing care unit was, and still is, given to residents of the home. The average age of residents now is 85, said Dapcevich.

There are vacancies in the residential quarters, but there is a waiting list of 200 for nursing care. Dapcevich said the governor's advisory board is proposing an increased budget for the next fiscal year to convert some unused residential facilities into nursing care units (NCU). Of the 66 beds available for residential boarders in the Sitka Pioneers Home, 39 are vacant, he said. "Sitka has twenty rooms that can be immediately converted to NCU beds at no capital cost," said Dapcevich. "However, we have not been Continued on Page 10 Bush Signs Overhaul Of Anti-Pollution Law Season Lineup It's toy time at the White Elephant shop, and volunteer Joyce Chandler is surrounded by dolls and stuffed animals.

A special Christmas toy sale was held Wednesday at the thrift store, with sales continuing today during the regular shop hours. (Sentinel photo) WASHINGTON (AP) President Bush, saying every American "deserves to breathe clean air," on Thursday signed an extensive overhaul of the nation's anti-pollution law to curb acid rain, urban smog and toxic chemicals. Susan Merrow, president of the Sierra Club, described the Clean Air Act of 1990 as "a breath of fresh air after a 10-year smog alert" Bush said the bill, which updates and tightens federal air pollution standards for the first time since 1977, was "simply the most significant air pollution legislation in our nation's history." "This bill means cleaner cars, cleaner power plants, cleaner factories, and cleaner fuels. And it means a cleaner America," Bush said at a packed White House ceremony. The goal of the legislation is to cut acid rain pollutants by half, sharply reduce urban smog and eliminate most of the toxic chemical emissions from industrial plants by the turn of the century.

The cost of adhering to the regulations is expected to be as much as $25 billion a year. Environmental groups temporarily put aside their differences with the president on other issues to praise his effort on clean air. But they said the effectiveness of the legislation would require aggressive implementation and enforcement by the federal government Richard Ayers, chairman of the National Clean Air Coalition, called the legislation "cause for celebration and hope.".