Teachers' Contract That Freezes Base Salaries Approved on Split Vote

Barrington’s teachers have a new contract.

The School Committee approved on a 3-2 vote Tuesday night a new three-year pact with the National Education Association Barrington. The teachers’ union ratified the contract on Monday night. It runs from July 1 this year through June 30, 2016. 

Voting for the contract were Chairman Robert Shea Jr., Vice-Chair Kate Brody and Patrick Guida; voting against the contract were Scott Fuller and Paula Dominguez. 

The new contract freezes salaries except for mandated step increases for all teachers lower than step 10 in all three years -- approximately 20 percent of the teachers. Teachers at step 10 -- about 80 percent of 274 teachers in Barrington -- get 1.95 percent pay hikes in years two and three along with longevity pay.

Terms of the new contract, therefore, will cut by almost half a million dollars the proposed $46.18 million school budget for next year sent to the Committee on Appropriations several weeks ago. 

“That money will go right back to taxpayers,” said School Committee Chairman Robert Shea Jr. 

The other significant change in the contract is the elimination of OPEBs (other post-employment benefits) for retirees, said Finance Director Ron Tarro, who helped to negotiate the new contract along with special counsel Ben Scungio. That eliminates $11 million in unfunded liabilities.

“That’s huge,” he said, referring to the elimination of family health coverage for retirees and the elimination of all health insurance coverage when retirees become eligible for Medicare.

Shea said the contract was recommended by the negotiating team. He lauded it for achieving “substantial savings” this year and down the road.

He also agreed with Tarro that the contract was negotiated while overcoming “challenges and barriers” thrown at the School Committee by the teachers’ union. 

Tarro said the contract was hammered out over at least 100 hours of bargaining sessions since early February. 

Dominguez said she opposes the contract because “it does not reflect the new reality of teaching” and it “does nothing to help steer the district in a better direction.”

Barrington teachers, she said, “have made efforts to strengthen their instruction based on a new approach to evaluation, worked to identify new curricula that align with new academic standards, and collaborated to come up with new strategies to support struggling learners.” 

At the same time, she said, a new "strategic plan" identifies priorities like all-day kindergarten and the thoughtful use of technology. Yet, she said, “there is nothing in the contract “that indicates any of these actions are valued, nothing that recognizes the work of the many teachers who go beyond the call of duty, nothing that embraces new thinking about what it takes to teach our students.” 

“Take out the word ‘Barrington’ and this contract can be mistaken for any other in Rhode Island,” said Dominguez, who wants a contract that “accurately reflects the essential characteristics of a Barrington education.”

“I hope that others on this committee will join me in these efforts,” she said.

Fuller said only that he stands on his comments from the previous meeting, when he called out the School Committee on its “backwards” approach to devising a new spending plan this year.

He said then that the school board should increase spending based current economic realities and not wait until a new teachers’ contract backs them into a corner on spending.

Guida said he sees the new contract as a step in the right direction because “we have achieved savings” and the contract provides “opportunities to develop further incentives.” 

Brody said teachers know “we have high expectations” and the contract reflects the union’s “willing partnership” with the School Committee to “build a great culture of education in Barrington." 

Before approving the teachers’ contract, the School Committee also signed off on a new contract for its custodial staff. The Steelworkers’ contract calls for 1 percent, 1.25 percent and 1.5 percent pay increases over the three years of the pact. It, too, eliminates OPEBs.