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10/29/2009 12:00 AMTown teachers can expect small raises and higher co-pays when a new union contract with the Board of Education takes effect in July. The teachers were thanked by the school chief for "recognizing the economic realities of the town." The three-year contract was settled following an all-night, mediated bargaining session last month.
Superintendent of Schools Sara-Jane R. Querfeld said, "I appreciate the fact that the teacher's union recognized the economic realities in town. They really worked together with us to come up with a contract that everyone's pleased with."
The new teachers' contract, which calls for a one-percent salary raise in July, higher co-pays, and skipping step
increases for two years, amounts to about half the school's
$42 million yearly budget, she said.
The co-pay increases go from the current $15 to $20 for a doctor's office visit, from $25 to $75 for an emergency room visit, from nothing to $150 for a hospitalization and from $100 to $150 for an outpatient surgery co-pay.
Teachers also will go without a step increase in the first two years of the contract. Teachers will receive a two-percent raise in 2011-12, which will result in a 1.2-percent increase to the budget because of the co-pays, Querfeld said.
Querfeld said she was pleased with the results, noting that the board would have had to have spent about $40,000 if
arbitration sessions were necessary, as they were with the previous contract.
Negotiating talks began in the summer and ended Sept. 23 after an 11-hour session. Among the negotiators were Sandra Cummings, chair of the board's Personnel Committee, and Ed Manjuck, vice president for negotiations of the North Haven Teachers Association. Manjuck did not return calls for comment.
"We stayed up all night," said Querfeld, "but were able to avoid the expense, stress, and often hard feelings that accompany
going to arbitration."
Querfeld explained that the mediator process used this year, instead of arbitration, has the union in one room and the school administration in another, leaving the mediator to "run between rooms." "We had to pay the mediator," she said, but noted the cost was "nowhere near as much as the cost of arbitration."
And this year, she said, "the five-percent increase in the arbitrated contract cost over
$1 million just to keep people
employed."
By contrast, teacher salary increases will be limited to $90,758 in the first year of the new contract, she said.
It takes 15 years for teachers to climb the 13-step salary scale. Typically, teachers can receive two pay increases a year, one for a percentage salary raise, recently in the three to five percent range, and the second increase as they climb to the next step of the pay ladder. In the new contract,
teachers will forgo their step increase for the first two years and will get a one-percent raise in year one, a two-percent raise in year two, and a 3.3-percent bump in year three.
At the bottom of the scale, a bachelor's degree-level teacher earns $39,835 a year and a teacher with a master's degree earns $43,122. If projected through all 13 steps, those salaries are $56,410 for a bachelor's level, $75,020 for master's level, and $81,274, sixth-year certificate.
Teachers approved the contract by a vote of 185-to-36 Tuesday. Ninety-three teachers didn't vote. The school board voted unanimously Wednesday night.