Concord Teachers' Union Approves Tentative Contract

By Amy Quinton on Thursday, May 25, 2006.

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The Concord Teachers' Union has approved a four year contract with the School Board, by a vote of 225 to 32.
The tentative agreement provides teachers with larger salaries but asks them to pay more for health insurance.
As New Hampshire Public Radioâ€™s Amy Quinton reports, most teachers are relieved the negotiation process with the Concord School Board is finally over.

Most teachers werenâ€™t smiling as they quickly walked out of Rundlett Middle School.
The 400 member union had just approved a four year contract, after dealing with a grueling 19 months of failed negotiations.
Teachers havenâ€™t had a contract for almost a year, and salaries have been frozen.
Rebecca1 (Iâ€™m sorry it took so long, Iâ€™m sorry about the acrimony more than anything else, if we could just do this in a civilized manner Iâ€™d feel a lot better about it.)

Thatâ€™s Rebecca Schafer, a guidance counselor at Concord High School.
But she, like other teachers, expressed relief that teachers finally reached a contract agreement.
The union approved a one percent salary increase for this year and around four percent for each of the following three years.
They also agreed to pay much more for health benefits.
Rundlett Middle School Teacher Dawn Florino says you canâ€™t have everything when you negotiate.
Dawn2 Iâ€™m on the HMO plan so thankfully Iâ€™m not on the one thatâ€™s getting the tough blow, but that is the case with some people theyâ€™re pay check will be less than it was last year.

The rising cost of health insurance was one of the major sticking points for negotiations.
The Concord School District provides teachers with a choice of three health insurance plans.
Under the four year contract, teachers will contribute double what theyâ€™re paying now under an HMO, from five to ten percent.
The Point of Service plan increases from nine to 14 percent.
But teachers on the J-W plan, the most costly and comprehensive, currently pay 14 percent.
Concord Education Association lead negotiator Mike Macri says they will be paying even more.
â€œWe agreed to a 21-percent in the third year for the JW plan as a contribution rate, and thatâ€™s going to hurt a lot of people in terms of the difference in the actual raises when you subtract what youâ€™re going to be paying for that plan.â€

Macri says most of those on the JW plan are veteran teachers.
And both the Concord School Board and the Concord Education Association agree that the contract will hurt veteran teachers the most.
David Immen, Chairman of the Negotiating Committee for the School Board says because of the schedule of salary increases, teachers at the top donâ€™t get the same raises.
But Immen says bottom line, health insurance is what caused the contract negotiations to stalemate so many times.
Thatâ€™s similar to other districts across the state.
David1 I think a lot of districts already understand without turning to concord, that health care is a dramatic and serious challenge to district and employees and we have to confront it.

The Concord School Board and the teachers union have agreed to establish a joint health insurance study committee to find ways to reduce costs in the future.
The School Board is scheduled to meet June 5th to approve the final contract.
For NHPR news, Iâ€™m Amy Quinton.