Newport Teachers Ratify Tentative Contract Agreement

The Teachers’ Association of Newport voted to ratify a tentative contract agreement with the Newport School Committee and school administration on Wednesday night.

The ratification follows a day-long negotiation session last week that was preceded by weeks of increasing tensions between the union and the School Committee and administration.

In a statement, the union said that the decision to ratify “DOES NOT mean that TAN agrees with or likes the class size language the School Committee and Superintendent have forced on us.”

Teachers said they see the new language as “ripe for abuse if the teachers and parents are not diligent in holding the School Committee and Superintendent accountable to do what is best for the children of Newport.”

At the same time, the union reaffirmed its no-confidence vote in Superintendent Colleen Burns Jermain and tacked on an additional no-confidence vote in the School Committee.

“We believe strongly that the Superintendent and the majority of the School Committee are attempting to balance the school department budget on the backs of the students and teachers in Newport,” the statement read.

Jennifer Hole, the union’s vice president, said Wednesday night that the union was not releasing vote counts for any of the votes taken Wednesday night.

Now that the contract is ratified, it will head to the School Committee for approval. It is then that the contract becomes a public document.

From our earlier reporting:

The major issue overshadowing contract discussions has been the issue of class sizes.

The issue was front and center at the start of the school year when the district added a new third grade classroom after student overages.

At the time, the district was offering teachers additional compensation in exchange for taking extra students above the 24 student class size limit at that school. The practice has sparked outrage among teachers but the committee contends that they are trying to balance the district’s financial woes into the equation.

Newport started the fiscal year with the onus of a $1.4 million deficit.

The friction between teachers and the administration has been ongoing for some time.Things heated up this summer after the union voted no confidence in the superintendent and many teachers filed grievances after they claimed they had been asked to violate the terms of their working contract.

In response, the superintendent, Colleen Burns Jermain said she arrived to the district in January of 2014 with grievances already in progress. She characterized the no-confidence vote as the byproduct of the protracted contract negotiations and pent-up frustrations on both sides.

“Unfortunately, especially when negotiations are not going smoothly, this is something that often happens.” she said.

Teachers in Newport have been working without a new contract since 2014.

Last month, a judge granted the union’s request to prevent extended benefits for retired teachers be a part of the negotiations.