Hamden Teachers Get Raises, Make Concessions

Starting July 1, Hamden’s teachers union will begin a new contract with the Board of Education that includes a new health care plan, raises, and a requirement to monitor recess.

The Hamden Legislative Council passed the three-year contract at its meeting Monday evening.

After a lengthy discussion, the Education Committee passed it unanimously. Then the council at large passed it. 

Raises

The new contract raises the salary cap on the highest salaried employees by 1.2 percent each year.

The district has a schedule of raises for teachers based on the amount of time they have been with the district. For example, a teacher in his or her second step (or first year of teaching) who has only a bachelor’s degree receives a salary of $43,856. Each year, his or her salary increases until step 15 (top step), when the salary stabilizes. Without the 1.2 percent increases in top-step employee salaries, teachers in top step with only a bachelor’s would earn $85,135 without ever seeing an increase again. With the 1.2 percent increases, top-step employees will be able to get pay raises, like their colleagues at lower steps.

Annual raises for teachers, explained Highsmith, are par for the course.

“If there are people not getting raises,” he said, ​“that would be a significant minority.”

According to the cover letter that Highsmith wrote for the contract, the contract’s salary agreement is lower than the average for such agreements for teachers in Connecticut.

The district projects that the raises will cost an extra $1,200,771, $1,180,650, and $1,237,646 in 2019 – 2020, 2020 – 2021, and 2021 – 2022 respectively. If the savings from the new health plan hold true, they should offset those costs.

Health Care Concessions

The major change in the contract involves a new health insurance plan for teachers. All teachers will have a high-deductible health plan of $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families.

The new plan will also include the creation of health savings accounts (HSAs) for eligible employees. HSAs are accounts that teachers can set up to pay for deductibles, copays, and some other health care expenses. As long as the funds are used for health care costs, they are tax deductible. The board will deposit 65 percent of the deductible amount in the health savings account for the 2019 – 2020 budget year, then 60 percent the following year, and 55 percent the year after that.

Teachers will pay 14 percent of their premiums by payroll deduction in the 2019 – 2020 fiscal year. The next year, they will pay 15 percent, and 16 percent the following year.

Employees will have the option to decline insurance coverage and receive a $1,000 incentive if they can get insurance through their spouses. The contract also includes a clause allowing the board to offer an incentive to retired teachers who were employed before the 1999 – 2000 school year to waive the health care benefits that they receive from the town even though they qualify for Medicare.

The district anticipates significant savings from the switch to the HSAs. In the 2019 – 2020 budget year, it projects $1,182,700 in savings, $2,110,000 the following year, and $2,316,700 the year after that.

Gary Highsmith, director of human resources for the district, told the Independent that by switching over to HSAs, the Board of Ed is following the example of other towns.

Recess

Starting next year, teachers will have to supervise recess. Currently, aides are responsible for supervising students at recess.

When students get back to class, Chair of the Education Committee Lauren Garrett explained, they have had trouble transitioning back into the classroom because of the different types of supervision they get in the classroom and at recess. Teachers could provide better supervision during recess, the contract assumes, preventing much of the disciplinary actions that currently take place.

The contract also includes changes to planning and lunch times for teachers. All in all, the district projects $100,000 in savings from the reorganization of supervision and planning time.

Enough Saved?

Certain members of the council raised concerns that the board will have to go to the teachers union at some point next year to ask for concessions, and that the contract had made empty promises.

Last year, the board had to ask teachers for two furlough days in order to cover budget shortfalls.

Highsmith responded that ​“we bargained in good faith,” saying that he does not anticipate having to negotiate concessions.

Many council members also thanked the teachers’ union for accommodating the tight financial position of the town and for its willingness to negotiate. District Four Rep. Eric Annes thanked the union for its ​“realistic recognition of the troubled times,” while Garrett thanked the teachers for accepting a ​“tough contract.”