Approval of contract for Tiverton teachers hits snag

The town’s teachers will remain without a new contract until the two sides can come to terms on the amount of time that will be allowed for the union president to conduct union business during the school day.

TIVERTON — The town’s teachers will remain without a new contract until the two sides can come to terms on the amount of time that will be allowed for the union president to conduct union business during the school day.

There are no disagreements over the proposed salary increases of 10 percent over the next three years, or the sick bank, which were two of three main issues in the proposed new contract for the district’s 183 teachers.

After an executive session earlier this week, School Committee members voted to have an arbitrator decide on the time issue for the union president. School Committee Chairman Jerome Larkin then suggested the teachers meet again to vote on the new contract proposal, minus the union president time issue.

That won’t happen, said Amy Mullen, president of the National Educators Association-Tiverton.

The teachers union earlier this month rejected the proposed contract because the union president would only be given one period off per day to deal with union issues, would have to document what the time was used for, and the one period per day would only be offered until the end of school in June, at which time the School Committee would decide whether to extend it to the next school year, Mullen said.

For about 10 years, the union president had two free periods a day, and the vice president had one free period a day, to deal with union issues. Reducing the time to one period for just the president and no time for the vice president is not in dispute, Mullen said, but putting conditions on it is an issue.

Superintendent Peter Sanchioni pointed out that the current contract teachers are working under does not contain a provision for union business time for the union leadership. The teachers have been working without a new contract since Sept. 1.

During Monday night’s School Committee meeting, school principals and Sanchioni made presentations on their goals this year and into the near future. One of Sanchioni’s proposals was to have some half days of school so teachers could have more professional development to further improve the district. He said he would provide more information about the half days in the near future.

But Mullen said after the meeting that “everything is on hold until we get a new contract. Now we wait and all that professional development has to wait, too,” she said.

If the time issue for the union president goes to arbitration, it could take months before it is resolved.

“A grievance we filed in August has an arbitration date of January,” Mullen said as an example of the time it takes to resolve issues in arbitration.

“It seems unfortunate when there’s so much good in that contract,” Sanchioni said of the School Committee asking that the teachers vote on the salary and sick bank proposal and set aside the union-business time issue for further discussion. “I researched every community in Rhode Island and no one provides this time” except large districts like Providence and other cities in the state, he said.

Teachers left the meeting in silence after Larkin explained the School Committee’s latest proposal.

He also announced that the building administrators would be given 10 percent salary increases over the next three years, and like the teachers’ proposed salary increases, they would receive 3 percent in year one and 3.5 percent in years two and three.

Sanchioni said administrators began receiving 2 percent salary increases in September, after an agreement with the School Committee on a new contract.

“There was a gentleman’s agreement if the teachers got more they would, too,” Sanchioni said.

A town charter provision that requires all labor contracts to be made public three days prior to final approval by a town body has not been adhered to in this case. Town Clerk Nancy Mello said she has advised the School Department that contract proposals and fiscal impact statements must be made public prior to a vote.

Sanchioni said a fiscal impact statement on the administrators contracts is in the process of being developed.