Seymour’s Board of Education Monday approved the basic details of a new three-year contract with the 183 members of its teachers’ union.
Negotiations between the school board and teachers had reached an impasse this month and looked headed for arbitration, which was scheduled to begin Thursday.
But late last week Superintendent Christine Syriac was able to hammer out a tentative agreement with union representatives which was then ratified by a school board committee involved in the negotiations, according to Yashu Putorti, the chairman of the Board of Education.
The full board then approved the deal at its meeting Monday night, he said.
The agreement was approved by the teachers’ union Monday afternoon, Assistant Superintendent Rick Belden said.
“We’ve avoided arbitration,” Putorti said Tuesday. “The last time that happened was in 1995. This is a milestone. This is a big deal.”
According to an “Executive Summary” of the agreement, which is posted at the bottom of this story, the contract will run from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2016.
The teachers will see a 2.89 percent raise in the 2013 – 2014 school year, which is the first year of the contract.
They’ll see 2.99 percent increases in the following two years.
The agreement also calls for increased employee contributions to health and dental plans.
Putorti said that adjustments to “step increases” — incremental salary increases based on experience — agreed to by teachers will help keep costs down overall.
“The bottom line is the increase to our salary budget goes up 2.89 percent,” Putorti said of the deal’s first year. “If it had a step it would be 2.89 plus the increases.”
“It minimizes our increases, absolutely,” he added.
The details approved Monday will now be reviewed by lawyers representing the school district and the teachers’ union, after which it will be signed by the parties involved.
That process should take between seven and 10 days, Belden estimated Monday.
Once that happens, the proposal will go to the Board of Selectmen, who can approve it, reject it, or do nothing, in which case it would go into effect after 30 days.
Putorti credited a willingness to compromise on both sides with getting the deal done.
“I think it had to do with the personalities on the negotiating teams,” he said. “They were more willing to negotiate. Both sides did compromise. Both sides got, I think, a fair deal.”
Seymour’s school budget needed four referendums to pass this year, and only then by a slim, 24-vote margin.
The school board had initially asked for a $31.3 million budget, which came down to $30.39 million by the time it was approved by a majority of voters. Board members then cut seven positions from the school district to bring costs in line with the spending plan.
Putorti said he thinks that process helped those involved in the negotiations realize that they should work toward a compromise.
Superintendent Christine Syriac was attending a conference Tuesday and was not available to comment.
