WESTFIELD – After working without a contract since early September, the Westfield School District has reconciled with the Unit B members of the Westfield Education Association, with the Westfield School Committee agreeing to the terms of a new contract.
Eighteen agreements were included in the new contract, regarding bi-weekly direct deposit, financial information, sick leave days, the formation of committees for a work calendar and evaluations, retirement extension provisions, vacation time and temporary leave, employee benefit liabilities, educator fingerprinting, staff developmental days, wage appendices, additional summer work days, the modification of severance pay/sick leave buyback, and wage adjustments.
The wage adjustments will go into effect in increments, with a one percent base wage increase on January 1, 2014, a 2.5 percent increase on July 1 of next year, and another 2.5 percent increase on the first of July the year after.
Unit B consists of Assistant Principals, Assistant Director of the city’s Vocational School, Supervisors, Subject Area Supervisors who report directly to the Superintendent of Schools, and the district’s Lead Nurse.
Excluded in the negotiations are the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of Schools, the Administrative Assistants to the Superintendent, the Vocational School Director, and the district’s various Building Principals.
Also excluded are the city’s Directors of Special Education, Human Resources, Curriculum/Instruction, and all other employees of the Westfield School Committee.
Within their first year of employment, Unit B members will also receive electronic pay-stubs, tax returns, or any other financial information.
Several articles were deleted from the contract or had language changed, such as Article XVI regarding sick leave (“bona fide sickness preventing an employee from performing his or her duties may be interpreted to include such cases as home exigencies/emergencies, quarantine by order of the Health Department, or serious illness of a member of the employee’s immediate family or permanent household requiring the personal care of that member by the employee), and Article XVIII dealing with leaves of absence (“Temporary leaves of absence with pay under this section shall ordinarily be used in one day increments, as opposed to coupled back to back, unless specifically requested and approved in advance by the Superintendant or designee.”)
While several articles only saw minimal changes, the sick leave buyback was one of the most crucial agreements.
According to the new agreement, a Unit B member would get $15,000 if they have accumulated 65-179 days worth of sick leave, or $25,000 if the Unit B member has 180 or more in accumulated days.
Professional development days, a hallmark of the administration of Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion, were also beefed up.
Going into effect July 1, 2014, Unit B members will be entitled to consider an additional one half days worked when the district’s Unit A members work an early-release staff-development parent-teacher conference day, also known by the acronym ERSD-PT.
The agreement is for Unit B members to work 1.5 days for every ERSD-PT day worked by Unit A. Unit B members will work three phases of the day for it to count as calendared working day, and they must attend the half-day while students are in session, the professional development portion of the day, and the parent teacher conferences in the evening in order to count the time as 1.5 working days.
“It’s consistent with what agreed on with Unit A,” said Committee Chairman and Mayor Daniel M. Knapik Following the executive session Monday evening.
“We should be good to go for a few years,” added Scallion. “The work continues. They’re a great group. There are wage changes, changes in the length of the school year, changes in sick leave, professional development, tweaks all over the place.”
When asked of the tone of the negotiations, which had been understandably testy over the past few months, Scallion said she was pleased.
“Both sides came out equally happy and unhappy,” she said. “And overall it moves the educational mission forward. That’s a win, because both sides are always about the kids. I feel good about that.”
WEA President Lori Hovey was unavailable for comment.
