New Teachers Union Contract Advances

Frustrated by years of working extra jobs to support her family, Fana Hickinson nearly left the teaching job she loves at New Haven Academy — until a draft union contract promised her a salary increase that convinced her to stay.

The Board of Alders Finance Committee heard from Hickinson on Monday evening as local legislators reviewed the latest proposed contract between the New Haven Federation of Teachers (NHFT) and the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS).

That contract — which won the Board of Education’s vote of support in November, and which now heads to the full Board of Alders for a final vote — would grant a nearly 15 percent raise over the course of the next three years.

The raise amounts to an additional $20.1 million toward teachers’ salaries over the next three years. The school system currently budgets about $130 million toward teacher salaries.

After hearing presentations from NHFT President Leslie Blatteau and Assistant Superintendent Keisha Redd-Hannans Monday night, the committee did not vote on the item. Rather, committee Chair Adam Marchand decided to recommend that the full Board of Alders ​“discharge” the contract and decide its fate at the next meeting, accelerating the approval process. 

If the full Board of Alders approves the new union deal, it would extend from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2026. Click here to read all of the documents associated with the new contract. 

Throughout her 10 years living and teaching in New Haven, Hickinson said, she’s worked second jobs behind a jewelry counter, at a summer camp, in a library, and as a tutor. She watched as the friends she made while earning her master’s in education moved on to make more money and find more stability while she continued to juggle shifts in order to make ends meet.

“This new contract has literally shown me a way to continue my teaching career,” Hickinson said told the alders.

The agreement has also supplied her with more hope for her students. Hickinson teaches a ​“college-bound seminar” at New Haven Academy, helping students research higher education institutions and prepare for college life. Every year, she said, she has at least one student who wants to be a teacher. 

“I want them to be appreciated and also compensated,” Hickinson said. ​“I really want them to view teaching as their first option and best option … This profession is not a dead end or a pit stop.”

While Hickinson has decided to stay in New Haven, she was far from alone in considering whether to leave.

Since the pandemic, many of Hickinson’s colleagues in the district have left New Haven public schools for other school districts or other career paths. A union-conducted survey taken in the fall of 2022 showed that nearly a third of responding teachers were planning to leave their jobs. The growing teaching shortage has only stretched the remaining educators in the district more thin, as their students face the academic and emotional ramifications of the pandemic, and as their pay lags behind teacher salaries in the surrounding suburban districts.

This new teachers union contract comes as the district struggles with high levels of chronic absenteeism and low levels of student reading and math scores. The district has also begun searching for a new superintendent to replace Iline Tracey after she retires in June. Monday’s committee meeting also took place soon after the teachers union hosted a rally outside City Hall, where they called for a school system less reliant on test scores — as well as for a transparent, inclusive superintendent search process.

The Details

Both Blatteau and Redd-Hannans framed the contract, which union members ratified in a vote of 1,000 to 30, as a measure to retain and attract teachers in New Haven.

“We knew we needed to make our teachers’ contracts competitive,” said Redd-Hannans, summarizing the negotiation process from the administration’s perspective. ​“They deserve more than what they were getting. … This is an investment we needed to make.”

The proposed contract would grant teachers a 14.79 percent salary increase over the course of three years, with the largest bump — a 5.94 percent raise — occurring for the 2023 – 2024 school year. 

That means that while the starting salary for New Haven teachers with a Bachelor’s is currently $45,357, it will eventually increase to $51,421 by 2026. (By comparison, East Haven’s starting salary for teachers is currently $49,054; Bridgeport’s is $45,591; Hartford’s is $47,464; and Meriden’s is $48,209.)

Meanwhile, the highest possible salary for a teacher with a master’s degree will increase to $97,356 by 2026.

The agreement entails between a 2 and 5 percent increase in employee contributions to healthcare plans. The exact amount of money that those percentages translate to depends on the fluctuations of insurance costs, Blatteau and Redd-Hannans said.

The contract would pay teachers an additional $42 per hour for covering classes during their prep periods. It would guarantee union leaders a meeting with the district’s Human Resources department each month. It would form a committee with both union representatives and administrators to work on teacher retention and recruitment.

For Raven Mitchell, who has taught English at Hillhouse for 13 years, the rising insurance costs were a source of concern. ​“It’s insane how much we’re paying,” she said before the meeting, adding that some of her colleagues felt similarly. She spoke to a sense of resignation about this compromise: ​“When you are trying to get people to hear you and you get pushback, sometimes we settle for what we can get.”

“We take on more than what’s in our contracts,” said Mitchell.

She described advising the school’s newspaper as colleagues ran other after school programming for no extra pay. When schools transitioned back to in-person learning after the pandemic and water fountains were out of commission, ​“every educator was buying water” for their students, along with other needed supplies, she said.

As she spoke outside City Hall, two of her students walked by. ​“That’s my favorite teacher,” one of them whispered to the other.

Meanwhile, Blatteau framed the added healthcare costs as a necessary compromise in order to obtain the salary hikes. She said that in NHFT’s fall survey, teachers indicated that low salaries were ​“the main driver” prompting educators to leave New Haven.

What About Working Conditions?

Alder after alder asked the presenters about the school district’s and union’s efforts to retain and recruit teachers to New Haven amid the teacher shortage.

Redd-Hannans consistently responded that the alders should talk to the school system’s human resources director, who would be able to speak in more detail about recruitment efforts.

East Rock Alder Anna Festa asked how the contract would address teachers’ concerns about working conditions at schools.

The monthly meetings with Human Resources, Redd-Hannans replied, are ​“so we can respond to their concerns.”

Blatteau added that the union is working on establishing mental health support and training for educators. ​“We need time for personal learning,” she said, including how to ​“put up necessary boundaries for educator well-being. … We’re gonna do our part to organize our members.”

Dwight Alder Fred Douglass asked about the retirement benefits in the contract.

Blatteau explained that a current provision for retirees to have access to health insurance until they reach the age of 65 had previously been scheduled to end at this time, but the new contract extends that benefit for two years.

“We knew we would see a mass retirement” among educators seeking to obtain that medical benefit before it ends, she said. The two-year extension of the program gives the district more time to recruit new educators in anticipation of a retirement wave.

Finance Committee Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand expressed support for the contract — while urging union members and school administrators to continue advocating for additional funding for the city from the state.

“The city is gonna need help with this commitment,” he said. ​“It is, in my opinion, the righteous commitment.”