Diana Stricker Photo
A three-year agreement has been reached with Branford teachers that gives them about 3 percent salary increases each year, and requires them to enroll in a high deductible health savings plan by the third year.
The Board of Education (BOE) unanimously approved the contract Wednesday night. All nine board members were present. The Branford Education Association (BEA), which represents about 310 teachers, ratified the agreement last week.
“We feel very confident we negotiated in the best interests of the board as well as the teachers, while keeping in mind the economic situation we face as a community,” Hernandez said.
The BOE also voted unanimously to renew the superintendent’s contract and extend it through the 2016 – 17 school year. The board authorized Krause to negotiate and finalize the details of the contract.
“We approve of the work you’ve done for the district. You’re moving us ahead,” Krause told Hernandez, who took over the helm in 2010.
Health Savings Plan in Teachers’ Contract
The teachers’ contract takes effect July 1, 2015 and calls for 3.1 percent salary increases in each of the first two years, and 3.4 percent in the third year. Hamlet said those percentages include both pay raises and incremental salary increases.
Hernandez said the contract, especially the health insurance provision, is “the trend-setter for our community because the teachers union is the largest bargaining unit in the town.”
High-deductible health savings plans typically have lower annual premiums, but higher deductibles. Hernandez said the new contract requires the district to pay 50 percent of the deductibles, and the employees to pay the other half. By the third year, all teachers must enroll in the plan. He said anyone staying with traditional plans for the next two years will have to pay the premiums. All new hires will be automatically enrolled in the new plan.
Hernandez said the district will save at least $230,000 in health insurance costs the first year and at least $307,000 in each of the second and third years.
Hernandez thanked both sides of the negotiating teams, including BEA president Carl Seeley, and Vincent Baglio, a member of the Representative Town Meeting (RTM), and Kurt Schwanfelder, a member of the Board of Finance.
“The process was a very good process but it was a very arduous and difficult process,” Hernandez said. “Without compromise on both sides we would not have gotten to where we need to be,” Hernandez said.
Baglio, who attended the BOE meeting, said the settlement was fair to both sides. “It’s a win for the town and for the teachers.”
Baglio said the move to the high deductible health savings plan was an “unprecedented change,” which he hopes will serve as a model for future contracts with other town bargaining units.
Diana Stricker Photo
Board chair Michael Krause (with Hernandez at left) also thanked the teachers for their cooperation in the negotiations. “The settlement was fair to both sides. They gave a little and we gave a little,” Krause said.
Hernandez said the contract will be on file in the town clerks’ office for the next 30 days to provide time for the town’s regulatory boards to review it. He said the contract does not have to be approved by the RTM, but if the RTM rejects the pact, it would automatically go to arbitration, which is typically a very costly process.
The current contract, which took effect for 308 teachers in June 2012, froze salaries for the first year and awarded about $700 worth of increases per teacher in the second and third years. The total cost for wage increases and step advancements for that contract was 5.73 percent. The current contract expires in June 2015. Click here to read about that contract.
The previous contract, which was ratified in 2009, gave the teachers what some officials called hefty pay raises considering the economic climate. Salary increase costs for that contract were 4.6 percent in both the first and second years; and 4.8 percent in the third year. Click here to read about that contract.
###
