The district rolled out two clean package proposals for the TTA
To see the rules for the open contract negotiations, click here; to see our Session 2 recap, click here; Session 3 is here; Session 4 here; Session 5 here; and Session 6 here. A copy of the current teachers contract is here, and the ESP (education support personnel) contract is here.
Find the School Committee informational page here, and the TTA contract information page here (this is a new site). And of course you can watch all the sessions on the Tewksbury TV YouTube channel.
At tonight’s negotiation, the district rolled out a new clean package for both the teacher and ESP contracts. These are the comprehensive offers from the district; any previous proposals from the district not in these packages are no longer valid, and any TTA proposals not included have been rejected.
You can find the teacher’s whole package here, and the ESP’s proposal here. Below are the highlights.
Teachers contract:
The district dropped extending the workday and is restoring the seven hour workday. Despite eliminating the extra hour, district negotiators have kept their original salary increase offer, which is 3.5% for the first year of the contract and 3% for the second two years. You can see a side-by-side comparison of the TTA proposal vs the district here. Appendix B stipend positions would receive a 2% increase each year, up from the current contract’s 1% raise per year.
The district added six additional early release days for grades K-6 for PLC (professional learning community) and prep time.
Breakfast duty is added in as an assignable duty.
Language changing “transfers” to “voluntary transfers” was kept, but the district still maintains that seniority can not be a factor.
There was a conversion about a change in the language to who sets the schedule. Previously it said that academic teams will develop the instructional schedule in consultation with the building principal; that has been changed to state that the building principal will develop the master instructional schedule in consultation with academic teams. The TTA questions this changes, and the district said that the principal ultimately has the authority to make the master schedule with input, which is how it has been working in practice.
The district is holding to their offer of $1,500 per person for one class for tuition reimbursement, with a cap at $85,000. The TTA had asked for the $1,500 per person to be able to be split in the case of less expensive classes. When questioned by the TTA, Business Manager Dave Libby shared that over the last few years an average of $55,000 has been reimbursed.
There was previously much conversation about renaming the stipend position Detention Supervisor, to update it but also make sure that the position was not dramatically changing. The current district proposal is Supervisor of Responsibility and Reflection Time.
ESPs Contract:
There was discussion about early release days. Currently there are four early release days for which ESPs get paid for the full day but leave with students, and that will stay. For the new, additional six added half days, ESPs will stay the full day, and that will give them common prep time with teachers. There is some concern that the half days and the increase to seven hours a day will still not provide adequate prep time for ESPs with teachers.
In an attempt at compromise, the district proposed to have the contract read that for the first year, the ESPs can volunteer to step up to substitute, with the option to trigger the clause that the principal can assign in the second year if relying on volunteers is not working. There was a conversation about how that clause would come into play and if it would be solely an administration decision, which was confirmed. Though the district said the issue could be discussed in the Joint Labor Meetings that happen monthly, the TTA was skeptical because they say some things they discuss in this meeting are never implemented.
ESPs will have the option to attend monthly faculty meetings and will be paid for that time.
ESPs working the six hour, 20 minute schedule in grades 5-12 will be added to the roster for lunch or playground duty, and one duty will be assigned a year, if possible. For grades K-4, ESPs will be assigned a 25 minute supervision duty per day, not to exceed 75 minutes per week. DLC staff who take students to lunch will be exempt. Seven-hour ESPs will also have rotated student supervision duties , plus 60 minutes planning time. The plan is to have all ESPs be seven-hour employees of the district by the end of the three-year contract.
Stipend updates include raising the diapering stipend to $20, Student Club assistant and Kindergarten Orientation paid at hourly rate, and $15 bus ride stipend if outside of normal work hours.
A new higher salary proposal was made. You can see the side-by-side comparison of the TTA vs the district here.
Common Proposals:
Updated language for reporting assaults includes how and to whom an assault should be reported; defines what is considered an assault; and specifies the district’s responsibility in regards to medical care.
While nothing was resolved, there was some movement on some of the sticking points. The TTA felt they needed time to digest both packages before replying, though they think they will have tentative agreements for a few items at the next meeting.
There are tentative agreements on a few items, including:
- Having the Thursday before Good Friday be the half day if it’s the week before April vacation
- School counselor’s summer hours
- Adding Kindergarten teachers as having the same schedule as grades 1-4
- Bereavement leave
- Half day sick days, though ESPs accepting the step up language is still holding this up
The next negotiating session will be April 23.
[…] – TTA collective bargaining negotiations will continue with their eighth session. See the results of the last session in our wrap-up. […]