There will be no general wage increase or step increase on the salary schedule for Seymour teachers in the 2010 – 2011 contract year — and three administrators will be giving their raises back.
As a point of “fair is fair” Superintendent MaryAnne Mascolo, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Rick Belden and Associate Superintendent Christine Syriac will “take a zero” for the year and donate their wage increases back to the Board of Education.
“We believe if our employees are taking a zero, we need to be there with them and take a zero also,” Mascolo said. She said she has donated her own wage increase back in the previous year as well.
The decision to not increase teacher wages was the result of arbitration between the Board of Education and the teacher’s union. The arbitrated contract was approved by the Board of Selectmen at the Dec. 1 meeting.
“It isn’t unusual in hard economic times to end up in arbitration,” Mascolo said. She said it would have been nice to have resolved the contract negotiations without needing arbitration, but certainly understood why it was necessary.
However, with people struggling for work, Mascolo said the arbitrated award is fair.
As the contract is negotiated for a three year term, there will be increases in pay and steps in the 2011 to 2012 and 2012 to 2013 contract years.
The first will be all teachers progressing one step and getting a raise of .99 percent. The second, finishing out the contract through 2013 will be another step increase for all teachers and a 1 percent raise.
“It’s good to have no salary step increase in the year ahead,” said Deputy First Selectman John Conroy. “That is good news for the Board of Finance.”
The Board of Education estimates the contract will represent no new costs to the salary pool in 2010 to 2011. In 2011 to 2012 the cost will be $514,650 and in 2012 to 2013 it will be $504,055.
Each step awarded represents an increase in the teacher’s pay level.
There are three tiers of teacher experience and education defining the salary schedule with 12 steps in the higher tiers, 10 in the lower one. At the low end a teacher could make $40,126 and at the highest, $86,038 in the 2010 to 2011 contract.
According to Mascolo the first and third years of the contract represent wins for the Board of Education, where they were awarded lower increases than the teachers were seeking.
The second year of the contract is a win for the teachers, where the board sought only a .5 percent increase. However in the third contract year the teachers sought a 1.5 increase in GWI and were only awarded the 1 percent. Over the course of the contract the average wage increase will be .66 percent.
Language was modified in the contract to provide tuition reimbursements to teachers only for graduate level courses that count toward movement on the salary lanes. Belden answered a board concern about reimbursements and obligations, stating that there is no obligation for a reimbursed teacher to remain with the Seymour schools. The reimbursement itself is $125 per credit according to Belden.
At the same time, language was altered to allow high school students to take certain courses toward college credit, without requiring a stipend paid to the teacher.
In all 45 of 52 issues were brought to arbitration. In most issues the arbitrators decided to retain the existing language of the contract. Some of the initial contract requests were not seen as entirely reasonable by everyone.
“I kind of fainted and fell off of my chair and thought they should live in the real world,” said First Selectman Robert Koskelowski.
He recommended the board approve the contract, saying he felt going back to arbitration would be unlikely to return anything more favorable to the town than they already had. Koskelowski also spoke somewhat against the system of union enforced tiers and salary schedules.
“Somebody who excels should get the raise, but the unions have taken that away from us,” he said.
In other areas, there will be an increase in prescription and health care co-payments. Furthermore, any new hires after July 1, 2010 will not be eligible for the existing post retirement health insurance assistance provided by the Board of Education.
Items such as stipends for longevity, travel, department heads, tutoring and summer school were not covered in the arbitration process. The contract defines no increase for those items.
Because the contract presented to the Board of Selectmen was an arbitration award, there was no necessity for union ratification. The board voted unanimously to accept the contract.
“It is kind of hard to vote anything but yes,” Conroy said. If the board voted no, the contract would return to arbitration with fears that a new version would be less favorable. Another option would be to not act on the contract and it would pass into effect by default.
