Teachers Vote Down Tentative Contract

After ten months of negotiations, the Teachers Association of Newport (TAN) overwhelmingly voted against a proposed tentative agreement for a three-year contract, Newport's Chief Negotiator said during Tuesday night's school committee meeting. 

During the meeting, the voted to accept Chief Negotiator Mary Ann Carroll’s recommendation to proceed to arbitration while providing time for another meeting between the two parties before the arbitration process. The vote passed 6-0 with committee member Robert Leary abstaining.

Carroll said negotiations will start from scratch, and arbitrations will include:

• Length of the contract
• Length of the school day
• Class size
• Elimination of clusters at Thompson Middle School and elimination of language referring to clustering in the CBA
• Elimination of stipendiary positions including Director of Guidance, AVA Coordinator, and Head Teacher at the career and technical center
• Elimination of job fairs and alignment of assignments
• Health insurance plan redesign
• Increase in cost shares and co-pays with regards to health and dental insurance
• Elimination of health insurance as a post retirement benefit
• Contract compliance with state regulations concerning teacher evaluations
• Elimination of contract buy-backs for employees who reject health and dental insurance

The agreement was last revised on April 30.

“We have the highest cost per student [in the state],” School Committee Chair Patrick Kelley said. “We can’t continue this way. . .without making some concessions, I don’t know how we can move forward.”

David Koutsogiane, President of TAN, attended the meeting, but declined to comment on the contract rejection.