Teacher Contract Issue Heads to Arbitration

The union that represents Newport teachers and the School Committee have failed to reach a new contract agreement and are heading to arbitration.

On Friday, the committee’s chief negotiator Mary Ann Carroll said that the committee has made “numerous attempts” to settle the contract but “at this point the School Committee has made numerous concessions, offered lucrative raises, and asked for no change to the teachers’ medical insurance, but the teachers are still rejecting the offer and although the Committee would prefer to settle the contract there now appears to be no chance of a settlement.”

Teachers began the school year without a contract. The last agreement expired in August of 2014, which was extended for one year, but expired before the first day of classes in September.

Union officials said that the sticking point for them has been class sizes. In an open letter posted Friday, the union said that the only issue holding things up has been the class size issue, not money.

“To us class size is a critical issue. It is the paramount issue when it comes to teaching and student performance. It determines the time we can spend with each student; the time we can devote to providing your child with individual instruction and extra help,” the letter stated. “We have asked the Committee repeatedly for any data, any reports, or any other evidence that shows that increasing class size helps students. They have provided us with nothing. Because there is no sound educational reasoning to support their position.”

Specifically, the union said their contract allows for a maximum of 16 students in kindergarten classes or 23 with a paraprofessional in the class. At the elementary schools, the limit is 24. At the middle and high schools, its 25.

The union alleges that they were under the impression that there was an understanding that there might be small overages later in the year due to unexpected enrollments. Instead, they said, the committee and district leadership took that understanding as an opportunity to start the year with overages.

“So we bargained a limit on additional students. We increased most classes by two students for those students arriving later in the year. We also bargained additional compensation for each additional student above the regular class size,” the letter said. “We never agreed to increase class sizes at the outset of the school year. But that is exactly the approach being taken by the superintendent. She has started the year over in several classes, including 29 students in one pre-calculus class.”

The district contends that the union has been misrepresenting the situation at the expense of children.

“Since the start of school, TAN has taken a vote of no confidence in the Superintendent and voted to work to rule. Their stance on the work to rule has placed children in jeopardy. The teachers enter the school building with the children, refuse to assist in the supervision of children, and refuse to help children after school who need help with their work. The union leadership is preventing teachers from attending professional development and doing what is best for kids. Most recently, the teachers are refusing to participate in Open House,” Carroll said.

Caroll said that though the TAN’s communications focus on class size, they “fail to report all of the factors about class size or the other major issues that are holding up this contract.”

Carroll said that the 24 and 25-student limits for middle and high schools is actually “on the lower end for the state” and the committee has offered to pay teachers more for overages.

Newport teachers currently get lifetime medical benefits for themselves and their spouses, which “no other district in the state continues to offer,” Carroll said.

The School Committee “must reduce this liability and has proposed a plan where benefits beyond age 65 are eliminated for most teachers,” a district release stated.

“The Newport School Department and the City of Newport can no longer sustain this benefit and it must be phased out.” Carroll said, noting that the money for this benefit “takes money away from children and programs for children.”

Along with a proposed restructuring of teacher severance packages, the elimination of the buyback and longevity reductions, the committee is offering teachers no changes n medical benefits for existing employees and “lucrative” raises of 1.5 percent, 2.5 percent and 2.75 percent in each of the three years of the new contract.

“Teachers always want to be treated like “professionals”. Unfortunately, the recent behavior by the Newport teachers is anything but professional and although they wear pins that say “kids first”, they should start placing the kids first,” Carroll said.

The union continues to insist that the entire issue revolves around class sizes and any public mentions of money or benefits by the committee is obfuscation or an inaccurate portrayal of the dispute, which has grown more and more acrimonious in recent months.

“You’ve likely heard from the chair of the School Committee that this is about money. Let us be unequivocal: Our dispute is not about money,” the union’s open letter said. “The fact is we have settled all money issues. In fact, we have settled all issues but one.”

And that’s class sizes.

“We reject the approach to education where classes are packed and students risk losing ground. Certainly some of our members would benefit financially were we to do things the way the Committee wants to, but collectively we have said, ‘No way.’”