[A]fter 15 months of negotiations and imposed working conditions that brought Burlington teachers to the verge of striking, the terms they agreed to aren’t very different from the imposition they fought so hard against.
The new one-year contract that was signed on Monday provides the same increase in pay as the employment policy, will cost the teachers more in health care contributions and gives the superintendent more discretion when assigning salaries and dealing with personal days for staff.
Teachers, however, received a significant increase in the amount they can spend on professional development.
“When we stand together, we can do great things,” stated Fran Brock, president of the Burlington Education Association and a high school history teacher. “I am also pleased that we and the school board have reached a settlement that not only averted a strike but also paved the way for all of us to work together on behalf of the city’s children,” she said in a press release.
The contract terms date back to Sept. 1, 2016, and go through Aug. 31, 2017. After mediator Ira Lobel spent hours working with both parties, they came to a tentative agreement on the eve of the strike last week.
It was important to the teachers to have a signed contract. In previous communications they said they didn’t realize the school board’s last offer was truly its last offer. When they failed to respond to that offer it became the basis for the employment policy that was imposed upon them. Impositions are bad for morale, Brock said in an interview.
She said it takes a lot of time, money and effort to become a teacher and it is a licensed profession much like a lawyer or a doctor. “When you have a unilateral imposition it is a slap down,” Brock said.
The board’s move, she said, was demeaning, disrespectful, condescending and paternal.
But the Burlington School Board was determined not to cut programs for kids or go into deficit spending — the only thing they were willing to discuss was moving money around. In the end, no money was added to the approved budget, according to the school board.
The salaries remain (from the employment policy) at an increase of 2.75 percent and there will be no step increases this year. The new contract got rid of the “middle of the middle” language that had been in a previous contract. This language that makes the school district keep pace with salaries in surrounding school districts had been a sticking point since the beginning of negotiations.
Retiring teachers will continue to be paid for unused sick days.
The real win for teachers was an increase in tuition reimbursement from a proposed and imposed $80,000 that had to be paid back within three years if a teacher left the school district to $170,000 with no pay back requirements. To pay for the increase, teachers agreed to increase their 16 percent contributions to health care under the imposed working conditions to 17 percent. There were also cuts made to other professional development programs to find money for this increase.
Superintendent Yaw Obeng also gained some additional authority through the new contract. He will be able to pay teachers based on their experience and education and they won’t be able to lodge a grievance in response. Teachers wanting to use personal days after Memorial Day will have to get their leave approved by Obeng.
