WESTFIELD – Westfield’s teachers have a new contract.
After a half hour executive session of the city’s School Committee Monday evening, the new contract for Unit A employees was voted on, and was ratified and signed by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik during the the open session of the meeting.
Key components of the new three year contract included the elimination of the current language regarding family illness days, and changes in the overall sick leave language to include how an employee uses their time, whether to care for a family member, a home exigency, and the use of up to forty days for adopting a child.
Other important provisions in the contract include the granting of every teacher fifteen days of sick leave to go with two personal days, and a cap at 250 accumulated sick days for teachers hired after July 1, 2014.
Modifications were also made to the sick leave buyback, or severance pay, language for hires made after July 1, 2014, with $10,000 being given to Unit A members of the Westfield Education Association.
WEA Unit A members with between 65 and 179 days accumulated, $20,000 to Unit A members with 180 days or more, alterations that Committee Member Kevin Sullivan believes will save the district lots of money which can go toward raises.
“The most satisfying part of this whole process is that both sides respected each other at that table, and understood the position the other side were coming from,” said Kevin Sullivan. “There were a lot of non-monetary issues that got resolved, dealing with evaluations, dealing with professional development, dealing with a lot of things that aren’t real sexy to talk about, but were very, very important to this group.”
Sullivan praised the creativity of both sides during the executive sessions which lead to the resolution.
“I for one was very thankful for the proposals that were put forth. There were some very good progress made,” he said. “When people ask about the outcome, I’m going to say ‘it was fair, it was a very fair process’… As good negotiations go, I don’t think anyone walked out of that room real happy, but they walked out with a lot of respect for the other side.”
“We understand what this contract is going to cost for the next couple of years,” said Committee Member Ray Diaz. “We understand what the city has to offer and what our forecast is for the next couple years, so we’ll be looking at some creative ways for how we’re going to pay for this, but it’s the right thing to do for our students, our teachers, and our school district.”
Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion thanked District Human Resource Director Jen Willard for her work during the negotiations, and said that she hopes to continue to work closely with union leadership during the budget season this upcoming spring.
Scallion also said she is “glad we’ve kept the focus on students and instruction through all of this” and that she looked forward to the ratification.
The committee also agreed to foot the bill for “reasonable expenses” incurred by Unit A members attending professional and educational development courses, and an agreement to negotiate a new state mandated teacher evaluation plan was also put in place.
Base wage increases were also agreed upon, with a one percent increase, effective the 92nd day of the current school year, with a two percent increase on July 1, 2014, and a three percent increase a year later to the day.
“I’m very glad it’s happened for the entire Unit A,” said teachers’ union President Lori Hovey after the meeting. “When you hear all of the progress, it makes why this contract needed to happen crystal clear. The work that our teachers do on a daily basis… People send their children to school, and they trust that we’re going to do our jobs.”
Hovey said that she “didn’t have an adjective” to describe her feelings about the ratification of the new contract.
“This is what we do,” she said. “The teachers of Westfield… We show up, we work as hard as we can, we give 110 percent for the children of Westfield, we achieve the gains we’re supposed to achieve. I think our track record speaks for itself. People may say ‘oh, one, two, and three percent?’ Yeah, one, two, and three percent, and we’ve earned every penny of it.”
