Members of the Kenosha Education Association ratified a two-year contract Wednesday night after three days of voting.

The contract ratification comes a day after the Kenosha Unified School Board approved the agreement. The ratification was completed after about 20 absentee ballots were counted. Because a majority of the teachers voting earlier favored the new pact, the board’s approval of the contract was not affected.

Under the new two-year contract, teachers salaries would increase 2 percent in the first year and 2.5 percent the second year.

The agreement, which is retroactive to July 1, reflects a 3.38 increase in salaries and benefits in the first year and a 4.12 percent increase in the second year.

Under the new collective bargaining agreement which covers 2009-10 and 2010-11, the teachers would keep the Wisconsin Education Association Trust as their health insurance carrier. Deductibles for their health care also would increase in the second year of the contract.

During the first year, an individual teacher would pay $100 toward a $2,000 deductible for insurance, meaning the district would cover $1,900. A teacher under the family plan would pay $200 toward a $4,000 deductible, of which $3,800 is covered by the district.

In the second year, the teachers’ contributions toward the deductibles increase to $200 for an individual and $300 for a family.

Teachers’ contributions to health insurance premiums would also increase a little more than 4 percent as a result of the new agreement. Teachers, working under the contract still in effect, pay annual premiums of $373 for single coverage and $853 for family coverage.

Mary Modder, teachers’ union president, said the union and district negotiators worked hard to resolve the economic issues presented during negotiations. Negotiations started in January 2008.

“We have officially ratified a contract, and the vote was overwhelmingly positive. Now we move on,” she said.

Although earlier estimates projected a 2 percent increase across the board for salaries both years, Modder said the additional 0.5 percent increase in the second year was the result of savings in two health-care cost areas.

The first involved teachers paying higher front-end deductibles during the second year of the new contract and a memorandum of understanding agreed to by the union and the district to re-establish a committee that would work to further lower health-care costs.

Earlier, Unified officials said there would be no additional effect on the budget contingent on teachers receiving a 2 percent raise and agreeing to an increase in deductibles.