Staff Photo
Asst. Supt. Highsmith: “We recognize that people are who they say they are.”
Hamden school employees will see raises, gender neutral bathrooms, and benefits for library media specialists take effect starting July 1 thanks to a newly approved contract negotiated between the teachers union and the Board of Education.
Hamden’s Legislative Council approved that three-year contract after it was moved forward by a unanimous BOE vote on Sept. 28.
“The support of both the Board of Education and the Legislative Council demonstrates our community’s commitment to public education and the contributions our teachers make in the lives of our children,” Superintendent Jody Goeler wrote in an email to the Independent Wednesday.
“I think this one we did very well,” Union President David Abate said of the contract. Abate has worked on five different contracts as a negotiating team member in Hamden’s teachers union, but this was the first year he led the charge as president.
“I like the language changes and the health care plan,” Abate reflected. “Overall,” he said, “It’s decent.”
9% Over 3 Years
According to the contract, teachers’ salaries will increase on average by 9 percent over the next three years.
That number — 9 percent — reflects the average salary agreements for teachers in other municipalities who were also negotiating contracts in the 2021 cycle at the same time that Hamden settled on its agreement in September.
The district has a schedule of raises for teachers based on the amount of time they have been with the district. For example, teachers in their second “step” (or first year of teaching) who have a bachelor’s degree currently receive a salary of $43,856. Each year, their salary increases until step 15 (the top step), when the salary stabilizes.
So that 9 percent includes expected raises that are scheduled to occur as teachers gain years of experience on the job — or move up the ladder of “steps” — as well as newly bargained increases in baseline salaries and in salaries for those who are already making the “maximum” amount possible at the top of the ladder.
The entry level salary for those with a bachelor’s degree rose from $43,856 to $46,421 for the 2022 to 2023 school year. According to Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources and Administration Gary Highsmith, that took Hamden from having one of the lowest starting salaries in Connecticut to just under the statewide average of $46,905.
That entry-level salary will also be leveled for those in their second year at the school; in other words, even as those in step two — their first year — get a significant pay raise, there will no longer be a raise for those transitioning from their first year into their second year. Effective July 1, 2023, all teachers will advance an additional step in the salary schedule, meaning that the entry level salary will rise to $48,397. Teachers who are working either their first, second, or third year in the district will all make the same amount.
Each year will see a gradual series of increases for those who have reached the maximum step. In the 2022 to 2023 school year, there will be a two percent increase for those at the max step, and a 1.5 percent increase for that same group the following year and a 1.3 percent increase through 2025.
Those salary increases will cost the BOE $1,382,211 more in 2022 to 2023 than they paid for salaries in 2021 to 2022. The projected cost for salaries for roughly 550 teachers will amount to $45,232,182 next year.
In 2023 to 2024, those costs are expected to go up by another $1,330,371 to a total of $46,562,552; and then up by yet another $1,353,582 in the 2024 to 2025 school year, at which point salaries are projected to amount to $47,916,135.
In order to mitigate the cost of those rising salaries, the board also expanded the total number of steps, meaning that it will now take 17 years for teachers to get to maximum pay. That lowers the jump between yearly raises and softens the upfront costs assumed by the board. But individuals who stay within the district throughout that time will ultimately make more in their final years of employment.
In addition, hourly rates are finally increasing for many teachers, some of whom haven’t received raises in over 20 years.
School coordinators, adult education teachers, and detention duty professionals will all receive raises of at least an additional $5 per hour, given the amount of time since they were last financially rewarded. That takes all of those specialists from wages in the $30 dollar range up into a minimum of $40 per hour.
Summer school teachers, teachers involved in preparations for public programming, independent study instructors, and curriculum writers are among a handful of individuals who will start earning an extra $2 per hour in 2022.
Highsmith noted that those hourly wage increases will barely put a dent in the board’s budget because there are relatively few individuals who work those jobs at a time and their raises were both minimal and long overdue.
Lastly, two teachers with extracurricular titles — the National World Language Honor Society advisor and the “Unified Sports Coach” — were both awarded stipends for their work. They will receive $1307.94 and $871.96, respectively.
Personnel Services & Media Specialists
Grace-Flood Photo
Goeler: “Fair contract.”
Two additional groups of school professionals were selected to earn non-monetary benefits.
Given the significant increase in technology responsibilities for library media specialists — especially throughout the pandemic — they will be excused from conducting classes during the first five and last five days of the school year in order to focus on fulfilling other professional responsibilities like preparing Chromebooks for student use.
In addition, the BOE recognized the often disparate amounts of labor faced by pupil personnel services staff, like school psychologists and social workers, who are required to process Medicaid billing for eligible students so that the board can be reimbursed. New language states that PPS staff who are required to process Medicaid billing for more than 10 students but less than 20 students will be relieved from a duty every other week and those who are required to process Medicaid for more than 20 students will be relieved from one duty every week.
Insurance
Meanwhile, the teachers will continue to participate in a high-deductible health insurance plan of $2,000 for individuals and $4,0000 for families, which was first introduced back in 2019.
The district has saved millions by switching over to a health savings account from a preferred provider organization plan. The only new health care concessions in the contract detail that teachers will increase the proportion of the premium cost share that they pay by half a percent each year of the contract. So, in 2022 to 2023, teachers will pay 16.5 percent — up from 16 percent this year — and 17.5 percent in the 2024 to 2025 school year.
Inclusive language
Natalia Sieira Milan, who represented the Board of Ed.
According to attorney Natalia Natalia Sieira Milan, who represented the Board of Education, a primary goal shared by teachers and the BOE in rewriting the contract was to “remove any language that could be perceived as in any way inequitable.”
“We thought that, given that it’s 2021 and Hamden is sort of a leading force in equality, diversity and inclusion, that those things needed to be addressed in the contract,” Sierramilan stated during Monday’s Legislative Council meeting.
The main outcomes of that broad framework was the replacement of any “he/she” pronouns throughout the union contract with “they,” as well as the removal of an old contractual requirement that there be separate teacher restroom facilities for individuals of different genders.
Starting in July, all bathrooms located in faculty designated spaces will be gender neutral. Student bathrooms will still be divided into separate facilities.
The idea, as written in a memo by Gary Highsmith to the Legislative Council, was to “ensure that our contract language is inclusive of all individuals and collectives and avoids any gender-based discriminatory language.”
“I would challenge you to find a collective bargaining agreement anywhere that has gender neutral language,” Highsmith told the Independent.
“Some people may not think that’s a big deal,” Highsmith reflected, comparing the importance of the gender neutral language and infrastructure to salaries and wages. However, he said the change symbolizes a broader spirit of mutual respect and high level collaboration between Hamden’s teachers and the administration.
“We recognize that people are who they say they are,” Highsmith concluded.