Teachers’ contract: Agreement offers ‘low’ raises

Written by Carrie Schmelkin, Reporter
Thursday, 29 October 2009 10:24

After months of negotiating, the Board of Education unanimously approved a new three-year contract with the New Canaan Education Association Monday. It will go into effect July 1, 2010.

The agreement, which is similar to that of other comparable school districts, will result in an increase in net cost to the town of 0.97 percent the first year, and 1.9 percent in the second and third year. “The negotiations were tough, they were absolutely tough,” Kathy Smith, chairman of the school board, told the Advertiser Tuesday. “The teachers appreciate that the town is not in the financial position that it was in a few years ago.”

General wage increases will be historically low for the next three years, according to Smith, because of the current economic climate. For the first year, all teachers will receive a two percent increase. In the second year, only teachers who have the most years of service to the district, those at the highest “step” level, will receive a 1.88 percent raise.

In the final year, top-tier step teachers will receive a two percent increase while other teachers will get a 0.39 percent raise.

For the first time ever, the district will also freeze upward movement on the step system for just the first year. In the past, a teacher would move up a step every year after completing an academic cycle and, accordingly, receive a raise.

Rather than insist on keeping step raise increases, which would benefit only those teachers at lower levels, the union decided to support a wage increase for all staff for the first year, according to Vivian Birdsall, head of the teacher’s union.

The idea of having to tell teachers that the wage increase was just two percent in the first year, however, was “really difficult,” Birdsall told the Advertiser.

“Of course you always want it to be more,” she said, “but we really did feel that with so many districts coming in at lower general wage increases, some at zero, that the district was fair.”

Echoing Birdsall’s comment, the union’s attorney, Joan Hughes, told the Advertiser, “The step freeze allowed us to distribute the money more fairly over the next three years.”

While the general wage increase for next year is almost half that of Greenwich, Darien and Wilton, Smith said that is because those three districts negotiated their contracts last year, before the economy “took a dive.”

New Canaan is in line with schools negotiating contracts now, such as Westport, with its wage increase contracted at two percent. The Westport district also instituted a step freeze for its first year, said Smith.

In addition to a freeze, for the first time the new contract provides that all New Canaan teachers will perform “duty” assignments as part of their daily responsibilities, such as serving as monitors in hallways, on the playground, at recess and in the cafeteria.

By having teachers rather than teaching aides perform these tasks, the district will save between $550,000 to $600,000 over the three-year term.

Vice Chairman Nick Williams, said the provision plays an important role in propelling the school’s mission to focus on students’ emotional and social learning, in and out of the classroom.

While a majority of teachers support this stance, Birdsall said “it does take away from some of the pieces we do,” such as providing extra help during lunch periods and after school.

In addition to wage and teacher requirement provisions, other items negotiated in the contract include health care. The union will pay more for health care premiums — 16 to 17 percent the first year, 18 percent the following and 19 percent in the third year.

This higher cost sharing, together with other health plan design changes that increase deductibles and co-payments, will result in an additional savings of $850,000 for the district over the contract period.

Despite the school board unanimously endorsing the contract Monday, a special meeting was called last week by the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Town Council to discuss the contract’s progress, before a vote.

At the executive session meeting, officials were brought “up to speed” on the specifics of the deal and the legal process, said Williams.

While several school board members said they did not recall whether such a meeting was held in past years, Jim Kucharczyk said that because the school budget makes up one-third of the town’s expenditures, governing bodies wanted to be well-informed.

“It was a very productive exchange of information at that meeting,” he added.

With the contract officially being approved by the school board Monday, Town Council now has 30 days to review it.

In the meantime, both board members and union officials expressed overall satisfaction with the agreement.

“People are very worried about what’s going on now, so people thought that in these times it was a fair contract,” said Birdsall.

“We know that we are supported by the board and that they are very concerned with how the educational system works in this town,” she added. “We are all very proud of the contract.”