[B]urlington’s paraeducators and the city School Board have reached a preliminary agreement on a new contract following months of negotiations and an unsuccessful mediation.
Details of the contract, agreed to at a special board meeting Tuesday, have not been made public. Board spokesperson Russ Elek and Burlington Education Association President Fran Brock said the parties involved could not discuss specifics of the deal until both sides had ratified the contract. Brock said the ratification vote would occur Thursday.
“I highly value and deeply respect the work of our Paraeducators here in our Burlington School District,” Board Chair Clare Wool said in a statement released Tuesday night.
This is the second contract to be negotiated by the board and the Burlington’s teachers union this school year. Last fall, teachers went out on strike after contract conditions were imposed by the board in late August.
In a separate statement included in a press release from the school district office, Superintendent Yaw Obeng also praised the settlement.
“I am pleased that we have a path forward and this tentative agreement in place so that both our educators and our administrative staff can move forward working together for the betterment of our students, closing the achievement gap and raising the bar” he said.
Neither Wool nor Obeng would take questions from a reporter.
Separate statements issued by Brock and the board in December and January pointed to conflicts early in the negotiations. According to a Dec. 7 update from the board, there had been a failed 7-hour mediation session.
Brock released a statement about three weeks later, saying that she was concerned about the way negotiations had been going.
“This evening I want to express my concerns that you seem to be on the same path with the paraeducators that you took twice in contract negotiations with the teachers,” Brock said. “Again you are demonstrating little to no respect for the collective bargaining process, believing instead that your administrators can unilaterally decide what is best for employees.”
Brock highlighted the special role of paraeducators in working with students who are most vulnerable and said that if salaries and health care coverage was not attractive enough, the school would lose those staff members.
“As with some of our best teachers, some of our best paraeducators are leaving us because they can earn more and be treated better elsewhere,” Brock said.
According to a chart produced by the School Board in December, the board had offered a 2 percent wage increase, while the union had proposed a 4 percent increase.
The board also said that employees should pay 10 percent of their health insurance premiums, while the union proposed that staff pay only 7 percent.
