New Saybrook Teachers’ Contract Approved
On Nov. 8, the Board of Education (BOE) approved a new three-year contract with the Old Saybrook Education Association (OSEA) that gives teachers annual wage increases of 3.24 percent (in the first year), followed by 3.48 percent and 3.33 percent increases, in addition to step increases. A portion of the wage increases will go toward higher premium cost-shares the BOE negotiated for health insurance. Teachers will pay one percent more of the premium’s cost in each year of the contract.
Superintendent of Schools Jan Perruccio said that the district’s percentage increase for wages is “very similar to those that were being negotiated around the state, though the collapsing of the steps did create an additional increase. Over the long run, the decreasing turnover of highly qualified staff will have a very valuable positive impact, though some of the impact won’t be quantifiable.”
The school district in the prior contract already achieved savings in the employee health insurance program through plan design changes that migrated many teachers to a High Deductible Health Insurance Plan (HDHP) from the older Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans. With an HDHP, employees pay lower monthly premiums than for a PPO plan, but are responsible for paying for medical care and visits out-of-pocket (or from a Health Savings Account) until the year’s spending reaches the annual high deductible amount.
In this new contract, the BOE agrees to continue contributing about one-half of the annual deductible for employees choosing the HDHP plan. Any employee choosing the more expensive PPO plan option must pay the full cost differential between the HDHP plan premium and the PPO premium.
In addition to wage increases and health insurance cost changes, the new contract with the teachers’ union also has other changes.
This round of contract negotiations featured an agreement to compress the OSEA wage steps from 25 steps to 15. Steps are contractual pay increases based on length of service and, while they are considered separate from pay raises, are effectively another pay increase. This long-sought administrative change moves Old Saybrook’s wage step scale closer to ones used by surrounding school districts. The step compression was touted as making it easier for administrators to attract and retain well-qualified teachers, especially those in the early years of their careers.
“This agreement modifies the salary schedule, which has been problematic for a very long time. Old Saybrook’s salaries have been competitive with other districts at entry level and at the top step, but it took a very long time for teachers to reach the top step. Now, teachers move up the salary step [increment] schedule over 15 years. This is a typical schedule and much more like other districts’ plans. Being able to attract and retain excellent staff is probably the most important thing a district can do to impact student learning positively,” Perruccio said.
The new contract also includes language that improves scheduling flexibility in support of the district’s strategic plan.
At the elementary school, five additional minutes were added to the instructional time each day.
For the middle school and high school, new contract language reflects a shift from a same schedule each day to a rotating eight-day class schedule. With the new eight-day rotation, some classes are less than full-time basis, meeting every other day for example. The contract with the teachers needed to be changed to accommodate this shift.
The new eight-day rotating schedule allows students to take more classes each school year while giving the school district the flexibility it needs to schedule and staff these classes.
“[A flexible teacher day in grades 6 to 12] is really important in a small district where opportunities in the schedule are minimized by the number of sections of each class we can run. This will help us maintain robust programs and may help us offer additional opportunities,” said Perruccio.
The district negotiators also won changes in the way new hires are placed on the pay schedule and how quickly they can move to the top pay step. The superintendent can now place new hires on the appropriate pay step for their experience, and new language allows movement of newly hired teachers to the top pay step more quickly.
The new contract also supports the implementation of new schedules at the middle school and at the high school.