Judge Grants Newport Teachers Union Request to Exclude Extended Benefits from Arbitration

Extended benefits for retired teachers will be off the table when arbitration begins Monday over a new contract for Newport teachers, though the real issue that has derailed talks is still about an entirely different issue: class sizes.

The Teachers Association of Newport, the union that represents Newport’s teachers, filed a complaint Thursday asking a Superior Court Judge to block arbitration from beginning on Monday as well as to strip the extended benefits retired teachers get from arbitration proceedings.

On Friday, Judge Jeffrey A. Lanphear denied the union’s request to prevent Monday’s arbitration hearing from happening, but he did grant their request to take extended benefits off the negotiating table.

That means that the arbitration panel can’t entertain a school department proposal to eliminate the extended health benefit plan, which began in 1998 and was closed to new members in 2006.

About 100 teachers are still covered by the plan, which offers to teachers with more than 10 years under their belts health insurance after retirement until the age of 65 and continued care after that. For those benefits, those teachers paid into the plan and gave up longevity pay.

According to the complaint filed on Thursday, the union said that the department wanted to get rid of the plan completely, even for teachers still enrolled, working and contributing all the while forgoing longevity pay other teachers were getting.

The union has argued that the only sticking point in contract talks with the School Committee is class sizes. All other issues relating to salaries, benefits and other issues had been settled upon, they said.

There have been intimations from the School Committee and their lawyer, Mary Ann Carroll, that “everything would be on the table” if the contract talks failed to conclude favorably and arbitration resulted.

The union, in a 115-32 vote on Tuesday, rejected the committee’s last and best offer. In a statement, union president Christie Cykert said “TAN overwhelmingly voted to reject the SC latest offer, which included raises and other gains. The teachers are furious that a SC and superintendent would knowingly stack classrooms at the start of the school year and expect teachers to accept money for overages. Teachers will not accept cash on the heads of kids! When we say KIDS FIRST, we mean it.”

Caroll said the union is merely trying to stall arbitration proceedings.

In the committee’s last offer, the contract offered teachers raises each year over three years beginning this year of 1.5 percent, followed by 2.5 and 2.75 percent.

The union has repeatedly insisted that they are focused solely on class sizes and allege that the district is shortchanging students.

The issue was front and center at the start of the school year when the district added a new third grade classroom after student overages.

At the time, the district was offering teachers additional compensation in exchange for taking extra students above the 24 student class size limit at that school. The practice has sparked outrage among teachers but the committee contends that they are trying to balance the district’s financial woes into the equation.

Newport started the fiscal year with the onus of a $1.4 million deficit.

The friction between teachers and the administration has been ongoing for some time. Things heated up this summer after the union voted no confidence in the superintendent and many teachers filed grievances after they claimed they had been asked to violate the terms of their working contract.

In response, the superintendent, Colleen Burns Jermain said she arrived to the district in January of 2014 with grievances already in progress. She characterized the no-confidence vote as the byproduct of the protracted contract negotiations and pent-up frustrations on both sides.

“Unfortunately, especially when negotiations are not going smoothly, this is something that often happens.” she said.

Teachers in Newport have been working without a new contract since 2014.