While the nearly two-year-old contract dispute between the Seneca Valley School District and its teachers union continues, the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers on Friday settled issues with the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

The three-year agreement was ratified by the union and approved by the school board following eight months of negotiations.

In October, the union voted to authorize a strike. The two sides met for a marathon 20-hour bargaining session that resulted in a tentative agreement Jan. 15, according to statements on the district's Web site, www.pghboe.net.

The new contract is retroactive to July 1. The previous two-year contract expired June 30.

"The leadership teams for the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers and for the district's board of directors are to be commended for reaching a settlement that is responsible, professional and mutually beneficial to teachers and other professionals, as well as the district, said Superintendent Mark Roosevelt in a statement.

The agreement addresses escalating long-term structural costs while providing for salary increases in each of the three years, said Theresa Colaizzi, chairwoman of the board's negotiating committee, in a separate statement.

"Please keep in mind that when a contract agreement is reached, in order for it to be successful for both sides, it must be first and foremost fair," Colaizzi stated.

"Both sides win and both sides lose — in effect, both sides compromise. That is the true description of a good contract process. The morale a contract settlement brings can make all the difference in the result of the work it represents."

Highlights include:

• Maximum salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree will rise to $75,800 in three years, and a teacher with a master's will rise to $79,800.

• Annual raises of $2,100 to teachers and other professionals on the top step of the master's degree salary scale. The raises represent increases of 2.85 percent, 2.8 percent and 2.7 percent annually.

• A total of 3 percent, or 1 percent each year, for all other increases and wage adjustments in the 10-step salary scale.

• No change in cost of health care coverage to current employees.

• Future retirees will pay half of any postretirement health care increase after the date of retirement, to a maximum of half of the total premium.

Union members have been contributing toward health care since 1988, according to a union spokeswoman.

Contribution amounts vary because union members can choose between several health care plans offered through Highmark, she said.

• Extending the work day by 10 minutes, an increase of 32 hours per year, effective in the 2008-09 school year.

The contract covers about 2,800 teachers and other professional employees, including social workers and counselors.

The 580-member Seneca Valley Education Association has been working under a contract that expired June 30, 2006.

Teachers went on strike Oct. 15, 2007 and returned Nov. 16 to complete 180 school days by June 30, 2008.

The Seneca school board is offering average 4 percent annual salary increases while the union is requesting 4 percent increases on scale.

On scale increases would include the average 4-percent annual raise in addition to about a 2-percent raise for moving up each of the 19 steps of the salary schedule, or the equivalent of an average 6.3-percent increase annually.

Using the average 2005-06 teacher's salary of $53,508, the board's offer would raise that average to about $62,595 after five years.

The union's offer would raise the average to about $68,320 in the new contract's fifth year.

The district is seeking health care payment increases from employees of up to $50 per month by the end of the new agreement.

The union, which has not contributed to health care in the past, offered to pay up to about $40 per month for health care.

The two sides agree that retirees are eligible for health care benefits for 7.5 years. Premium cost increases are not addressed.

Neither side is looking to extend the length of the school day.

A nonbinding arbitration panel will have a hearing on the contract Feb. 29.