DERBY – The city’s legislative branch Jan. 9 unanimously approved a teachers’ contract that will see educators receive an approximate 21 percent raise over the next four years.
The members of the Derby Board of Aldermen & Alderwomen approved the deal between the Derby Board of Education and the union after an executive session of about 60 minutes. There was no discussion on the contract after the executive session, just a straight vote. One member, David Chevarella, abstained because he teaches in the schools.
Executive sessions are closed-door meetings allowed under state law under specific circumstances, such as reviewing a contract.
However, the teachers’ contract was already a public document after the members of the school board approved it Dec. 18.
Prior to the vote and executive session, several educators and two members of the school board spoke in support of the new contract.
They said Derby needed to pay teachers more in order to stay competitive with other school districts.
Starting salaries for new teachers is about $56,000. The state average salary for a new teacher with a bachelor’s degree is between $50,000 and $55,000, though it varies by town or city.
During the Jan. 8 Aldermen meeting, school board member Jim Gildea read a list of 18 names of educators he said had left in recent years to take higher paying jobs in other districts. He said about 90 percent of the former Derby school employees were “teacher of the year” candidates either within the school where they taught or districtwide.
The new contract is an “effort to invest in our teachers and, by extension, to invest in our students,” Gildea said.
New school board chairman Kenneth Marcucio Sr. said the contract will help Derby recruit the best candidates for the job.
“After many hours and days of deliberation an agreement was reached by both parties and it was felt by the committee and the entire board that it was important to get Derby’s salaries in line with some of the Valley school systems, our DRG (similar school districts) and other state teacher contracts,” Marcucio said in an email to The Valley Indy. “This settlement will do that and hopefully we will get more great teachers to apply for teaching positions in the City of Derby.”
The contract covers 2026 through 2030. The salary increases are as follows:
Year 1: 7.9 percent
Year 2: 4.6 percent
Year 3: 4.3 percent
Year 4: 4 percent
Those numbers are a 5.23 percent increase on average per year.
Alicia Olenoski, the president of the teachers’ union, said the salary increases can promote stability within the district.
“I hear the same thing over and over. It’s not that they don’t want to stay here, it’s that they can’t turn down the fact that they are getting such a large salary increase when they go,” she said.
Candace Lebel has been teaching at Derby’s Irving School for 23 years. She said the district does a great job with bringing high-quality professional development programs for teachers to the district, such as the Fundations program. Those programs cost money and make teachers better at their jobs.
However, since Derby pays less than surrounding towns, those newly trained teachers leave.
“I’m the last standing teacher at Irving School that you spent that money on,” she said.
The new contract has the potential to cut down on teacher turnover, she said.