Teachers Union Contract Approved

Public school teachers will get a bump in salary now, in exchange for a lower pay grade in the future.

That’s the biggest change in a three-year teachers union contract approved by the Board of Alders on Monday night. The agreement changes medical benefits for new employees, lengthens the work day, caps saved-up sick leave and clarifies outdated language about management’s ability to transfer employees involuntarily.

The contract negotiations, which took place as the Board of Education is running short on cash after a five-year, $53.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) ran out this year, took months to settle. After talks with a mediator broke down, the parties eventually reached a consensus before a three-lawyer arbitration panel.

In the new contract, each salary step movement goes up by an average of 2.63 percent, down from 4 percent in prior contracts. All educators in the union will go up a step now. In the years ahead, teachers who aren’t rated effective or higher in their annual evaluation will have to go through professional development before they get a raise.

Will Clark, the district’s chief operating officer, estimated that the changes will save the school district $2.5 million annually. That discount largely comes from staff attrition. That’s due to the ​“significant turnover in our teacher force each year,” up to 150 teachers annually, Clark said. (The union puts the figure far lower. This summer, the district made 95 hires for essential vacancies.) The money arrives when senior educators, who are much higher up on the pay scale, will be replaced by junior teachers at a far lower salary, he explained.

The district will also avoid costs with a change in medical benefits, as it tries to switch teachers over to a high-deductible health plan. Existing teachers are getting incentives to do so; new teachers can sign up only for the high-deductible plan. That’s a switch from the traditional preferred provider organization (PPO) plan, where teachers could go to a network of doctors and specialists but pay higher premiums. In the new system, the school will fund a health savings account (HSA), which sets aside untaxed money to cover for medical expenses, and cost-sharing rates are down to 11 percent.

“It’s much less expensive. For me personally, I’m running to get that HSA plan,” said Dave Cicarella, the teacher’s union president. ​“There’s no downside to it.”

Both sides withdrew proposals about changes to class sizes. Currently, they’re capped at 26 students for K‑2 and 27 students for 3 – 12. The union wanted smaller classes; the district wanted no caps at all. Teachers did agree to work a seven-hour day starting in the 2020 – 21 school year, adding 15 minutes of flexible time daily to meet with parents or students.

The Board of Education is now finished negotiating all its contracts, Clark said. A few school administrators, like those overseeing finance, food services and custodial, are still waiting on the city to wrap up negotiations with the AFSCME Local 3144 supervisors union.