Marcia Chambers File Photo
Carrano & Hamlet.
The Branford Education Association and the Board of Education have reached a contract agreement for the district’s 308 teachers that freezes salaries for the first year, and awards increases of about $700 per teacher in both the second and third years.
“It was a compromise from both parties,” Board Chairman Frank Carrano told the Eagle. “We were hoping to come in even lower than that, but it wasn’t realistic. …And they were looking for more.”
The monetary terms of the new contract are in stark contrast to the previous one when teachers received hefty pay raises. Click here to read about the contract ratified by the Representative Town Meeting in January 2009. Salary increase costs for that contract were 4.6 percent in both the first and second years; and 4.8 percent in this the third year, about $1 million this year.
By contrast, the total cost for wage increases and step advancements for the new three-year pact is 5.73 percent.
“It also validates our decision last year not to ask for concessions,” Carrano told the Eagle. “I don‘t think we could have ever reached this agreement (if there were concessions in 2011-12, the final year of the current contract.) That would have taken us down a different road.”
The new pact, which goes into effect July 1, 2012, requires teachers to pay higher co-pays for health insurance in the second year, and also increases their health insurance premium contributions in the second and third years.
First Selectman Anthony “Unk” DaRos said the terms of the contract seem appropriate. “I think it’s very good,” he told the Eagle. “It’s a lot better than last time.”
Superintendent Hamlet Hernandez, who took over the helm in 2010, told the Eagle the contract is a “win-win situation” and that he was pleased with the agreement. From the outset of his appointment last year, Hernandez said he would engage the union in working out a new contract. Overall it took about a year to negotiate the current contract and this time around Hernandez achieved major concessions. Click here for an interview on his views.
“Both parties worked collaboratively to work out an agreement that is responsive to the needs of the children and economically responsive to the community,” Hernandez said.
The contract agreement was announced in a joint press release Tuesday afternoon by the Board of Education (BOE) and the Branford Education Association (BEA).
Carrano told the Eagle that the salary increases for the second and third years are based on a 1 percent cost per year, not on 1 percent of each teacher’s salary. He said this will equate to pay raises of slightly more than $700 per teacher in each year.
In addition, teachers who are not at the top salary step will advance one step in the second and third years and receive previously agreed-upon pay increases, which can be substantial. Teachers move up a step each year until reaching their 14th year of service.
In the press release, Carrano and BEA President Carl Seeley praised both parties for their willingness to work collaboratively to reach an agreement that meets the students’ needs while being responsive to economic circumstances.
Seeley, who teaches 8th grade at Walsh Intermediate School, told the Eagle the salary freeze will be hard on teachers but that they realize that “times are tough.”
When the RTM approved the 2009 contract, there was discussion of rejecting the pact and requesting binding arbitration to rework the contract. The overwhelming majority of Democrats on the RTM rejected binding arbitration, which can prove costly for towns and remove the decision-making power from town boards. At that time, DaRos said he would have preferred having the town request binding arbitration to revise the contract in hopes of bringing it in line with the tough economic times.
In February 2009, Carrano and the BOE said they would seek teacher concessions, but the give-backs never materialized.
According to the press release for the new contract, the union and school board had initiated an arbitration process, but were able to reach full agreement as arbitration was just getting started.
Carrano told the Eagle that the agreement is a stipulated arbitration award which means that both sides reached agreement, as opposed to an arbitrator making the decision. The contract was filed in the Town Clerk’s office Tuesday.
Carrano said that since the arbitration process had begun, the decision is final and does not need to be ratified by the Representative Town Meeting. “It isn’t something that needs approval,” he said.
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