BELLOWS FALLS-Teachers in the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union have a new three-year contract, retroactive to July 1.
The settlement was reached on July 24, and the Windham Northeast Education Association (WNEA) membership voted to ratify the agreement on July 29. The new contract was signed just prior to WNESU schools opening on Wednesday, Aug. 28.
The district's school boards ratified it at separate meetings, with the final meeting held on Aug. 14 when the WNESU Negotiations Committee signed the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the WNEA Teachers Negotiation Committee.
The supervisory union represents 1,049 students from early education to grade 12 in six schools in Athens, Grafton, Rockingham, and Westminster.
Negotiations began in October 2023, and the two groups met regularly for the next five months. When the two sides reached an impasse in negotiations, talks went into mediation last March and then into fact-finding in May.
"But our final mediation/negotiations session in July - after the fact finder's report had been issued - was focused on finding a satisfactory solution for both parties," said Kate Kane, the WNEA's lead representative.
Both sides agreed that the negotiations were ultimately "respectful and cooperative," Kane said. Cheryl Charles, the WNESU school board chair and the board's lead negotiator, noted that despite differences along the way and some initial wariness, "the process was constructive and respectful. Through patient effort, and many meetings, including two rounds of mediation and fact-finding by an independent expert, an agreement was reached."
Issues of trust
Charles characterized the major issues that caused the impasse in the negotiations as "lack of trust and differences over money," citing a 2023 Reformer article in which two high school board members, not members of the negotiations team, charged that the union was requesting "a substantial increase."
"At a Dec. 13 joint negotiations meeting, the teachers' representatives said that statement to the press was a breach of the Ground Rules for Negotiations, which specifically state that 'leaks of information outside the two parties will be considered bad faith,'" she continued. "The teachers' representatives at that time stated their belief that we were at impasse. The board committee was able to demonstrate that they immediately told the board members involved that their statements were inappropriate and put the negotiations at risk."
An accusation by one board member of being kept in the dark regarding the contract negotiations "is not accurate," Charles said.
She gave the example that the high school board had three of five representatives on the board negotiating committee.
"Beginning last July," she said, "high school board members were frequently offered the opportunity to ask questions and make recommendations to the negotiating team. All the boards, including the high school board, offered guidance to the negotiating team members, which the board negotiating team took seriously and acted within."
She added that in order to conduct the negotiations in good faith, and to limit the risk of leaks to the press that would once again potentially derail the negotiations process, both the boards' and teachers' negotiations committee adhered to the Ground Rules for Negotiations. Doing so limited the level of detail that the committee members provided, while honoring the guidance they received from each of the boards.
Kane agreed that "the ground rules stated that the negotiations would be confidential. Both sides honored that agreement." [Editor's note: A commentary from school board member David Clark criticizing the confidentiality of the process appears this week in Voices, D1.]
When asked how they felt about the results of the negotiations and mediation, Charles said that she thought both the boards' and teachers' negotiations committees "are genuinely satisfied that the negotiations were fair and conducted in good faith, keeping both the interests of teachers and taxpayers in mind. The results will help to serve our communities' children and youth for years to come."
Kane said that the WNEA "is very pleased with the outcome of negotiations and with the new three-year CBA."
She added that "there are always items we would like to address further, but both sides put all their issues on the table in the early negotiating sessions."
Kane said they then determined which issues they could address and resolve quickly, which ones they were going to take off the table for this round of negotiations, and which ones they were going to continue to bargain over until they reached a resolution satisfactory for both sides.
"In the end, we are pleased to have a strong contract that has addressed the major issues we brought into the negotiations process," Kane said.
BFUHS board chair Rob Weltz noted that "all the town school boards and the WNESU board unanimously passed the new agreement. The high school board voted 7–1 to approve the new agreement."
Contract calls for safety committee, new salary schedule
The new contract, in effect from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2027, includes the salary schedules and benefits for those three years.
"One major change to the contract is the inclusion of language requiring a safety committee be established," Kane noted, "composed of members from both the administration and the union, which will meet at least three times per year."
The other major change is in the salary schedule. The schedule previously began at Step 4, but Steps 1–3 have been added back into the schedule, with the stipulation that no current faculty will go backward on the salary schedule. Helping to attract and retain teachers are among the most important aspects, while limiting impacts on taxpayers," Charles said.
The establishment of the safety committee and the new salary schedule "are the most important aspects of this new contract," Kane said. She added that the new salary schedules "will support teachers across the spectrum of steps and columns."
As far as financial implications are concerned, Charles said that "the new contract serves both taxpayers and teachers."
"Because currently employed teachers are able to move up the salary schedule without dropping back to accommodate three new steps that were added at the beginning of the schedule, those teachers are individually receiving financial benefits above 2% plus $1,600 annually," she noted.
At the same time, she asserted that the new schedule does not result in major cost consequences for taxpayers.
"For example, based on the actual salaries of current teachers in all of the schools districts within the WNESU, there is a projected increase of $238,000 in fiscal year 2025 (about a 3% increase from fiscal year 2024). That increase is spread among all the member town school districts and the high school, and varies from district to district," she said.
Kane agreed with Charles that "each side wanted to reach a settlement that both attracted new staff and retained current staff. With the new salary schedule, we are confident that we have taken a major step forward in accomplishing these goals."
Charles said that she was concerned "that health insurance premiums are out of the control of local school boards. Rates have gone up by double digits each of the past two years, and are projected to do so again next year."
She also added that "some community members have expressed concern about what are described as double-digit increases in property tax rates. There are no double-digit homestead tax rate increases within the town school districts of the WNESU."
For example, she noted that the homestead tax rate in Westminster, where she lives, is actually slightly reduced.
Weltz said "on behalf of the Board, I would like to thank the WNEA and the board's committee for the tireless work and efforts that went into the negotiations.
He added that the new CBA will allow the WNESU district to continue to retain and attract outstanding educators "to work with our students while being mindful of the taxpayers."
In a time when many schools throughout the country are seeing a shortage of teachers, he said he believed that "this CBA demonstrates how valuable our educators are to our school system, community, and most importantly, our students."
Weltz said his hope is that "the teachers will feel valued and appreciated for the incredible influence that they have on preparing the next generation of leaders in our community."
This News item by Robert F. Smith was written for The Commons.