FALLBROOK - Teachers and support staffers will pay a portion of their insurance costs for the first time under new contracts reached this week with the Fallbrook Union Elementary School District.

The separate contracts for the district's approximately 290 teachers and 268 support staffers - bus drivers, custodians and health technicians, for example - call for 3 percent raises retroactive to July 1, and one-time payments equal to 2 percent of their 2007-08 salaries.

The salary increases are based on an employee's 2006-07 salary, which does not include "step and column" raises, or extra built-in raises teachers receive annually for classroom experience and career-oriented classes they take.

Under the new teachers contract, a teacher who made $45,000 in the 2006-07 school year would receive $46,350 in the current school year and a $927 bonus.

District officials described the bonuses as one-time payments designed to supplement the compensation of all teachers and support staffers without increasing their salaries, upon which next year's raises will be based.

The teachers union has already signed off on its contract and the union for support staffers is expected to ratify its agreement when it meets next month.

Board President Maurice Bernier said benefits were a key part of negotiations because of skyrocketing health insurance costs.

Prior to this year, the district's employees received free health insurance, but teachers and support staffers must now pay $162 a year for individual insurance coverage, $318 for an employee and one dependent, or $450 for family coverage.

"Benefits are … part of your compensation," Bernier said in explaining the district's approach to balancing salaries with insurance benefits. "Sometimes, we have to take a look at what the percentage of a pay increase is, compared to what the increase in benefits will be."

Vickie Nelson, the chief negotiator for the nonteaching employees' union, said that paying insurance premiums is just a fact of life nowadays.

"Our members are now having to pay out of their pockets, and that's something that we're all going to have to get used to," Nelson said. "We haven't had to before, like so many other school districts and businesses."

The elementary school district serves about 5,800 students at eight traditional campuses - including two on Camp Pendleton - and one home-school program.

The district has paid for all of its employees' health insurance benefits until now, but trustees and administrators informed union officials that the rising costs of health insurance would eclipse the district's attempts to foot the entire bill.

Even though teachers and support staffers must now pay portions of their insurance benefits, Bernier said this year's negotiations went just as smoothly as in previous years.

"It was one of the easiest negotiations we've had," he said. "It was certainly very straightforward. Both sides put forth their positions, and some minor changes were made, but that's about all."

Nelson said she was also happy with this year's negotiations.

"Of course, we didn't get everything we wanted, but we're pleased," she said.

In many school districts, including the Fallbrook Union High School District in 2006, contract negotiations can become heated, with tension spilling into school board meetings and elections.

Bernier attributed the relative ease of the elementary school district's annual contract negotiations to the district's negotiator, Assistant Superintendent Jim Whitlock, and to union leaders.

"We've got a very good negotiator, and the teachers union has got a good team, too - very professional," said Bernier. "That makes negotiations so much simpler."

- Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 740-3516 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.