Farmington Schools Approves Agreement with Teachers

The Farmington Public Schools Board of Education on Wednesday approved a tentative agreement with its largest union, the Farmington Education Association, which represents teachers.

The two-year agreement represents about a 5 percent cut to average total compensation, which will save the school district $9 million over two years, said David Ruhland, assistant superintendent for human resources at a special board meeting Wednesday.

The concessions come in the form of higher contributions to health, dental and vision coverage, Ruhland said. They do not include pay cuts, though they do include pay freezes and step-increase freezes.

The increased contributions—20 percent of the cost of health coverage being paid by the employees, and 80 percent paid by the district—will cost the average worker $4,700 per year, according to board member Karen Bolsen. But it doesn’t go any further than what the state Legislature proposed and passed earlier this month. Lawmakers  capped at 80 percent the amount school districts can pay for employee health coverage.

The board approved the tentative agreement 5-2. It will be ratified by the FEA during the next couple of weeks, Ruhland said.

However, two board members said that the cuts don’t go deep enough  and voted against the agreement.

Board member Timothy Devine said that his vote against approval is no reflection on his opinion of the value of teachers. He said that his children have received an excellent education from caring teachers. And the cuts are not an indication of the worth of teachers’ work. It’s a matter of what the district can afford.

“Expenses continue to rise and revenues continue to fall,” said Devine, who is not running this year for re-election to the board. “There is nowhere else to look to make up that gap,” except personnel costs. At the same time, there are certain “mission-critical, essential” unmet needs in the district. He said that classrooms are overcrowded, and “the breadth of student abilities and competencies is too large for the teacher to handle” in those large classes.

He called the agreement “unsatisfactory” because “it doesn’t go far enough in recognizing increased expenses and decreasing revenues.”

Board member Deborah Brauer agreed. Brauer is also not running for re-election this year.

“This is our largest pool of employees,” she said. “This agreement is the same as if we didn’t do anything at all.” She said she was disappointed, especially in light of the real sacrifices—wage cuts, decreased work hours, as well as increased health care contributions—that the school’s noninstructional hourly workers agreed to earlier this year.

Also in the agreement are provisions to establish work groups to improve student instruction, as well as take up other issues such as compensation and wage increases.