At its Tuesday night meeting, the Board of Eduction ratified the contract with the West Hartford Education Association.
By Ronni Newton
The West Hartford Board of Education has approved a contract with the district’s approximately 900 teachers, that will provide step and salary increases and will switch healthcare benefits from the town’s current plan to the Connecticut State Partnership Plan (SPP), effective July 1, 2019.
The Board voted 5-0 to ratify the contract, with two members whose spouses are teachers abstaining from the vote.
Executive Director of Human Resources Rick Ledwith said that this year’s contract negotiation process was different from the experience in past years, and noted that the teachers who were involved did an excellent job of representing their colleagues.
Early meetings were productive, Ledwith said, but negotiations broke down in late fall. A mediator was brought in but the two sides were still unable to reach agreement, he said.
A crowd of teachers, dressed in red, had attended the the Nov. 21 Board of Education meeting to protest the state of the contract negotiations, and what at that point was a rejection of the teachers’ desire to switch to the SPP. David Simon, negotiator for the West Hartford Education Association (WHEA) said at the Nov. 21 meeting that the union had proposed joining the SPP, and that the move would be a cost-saving measure for the teachers and the district.
On Dec. 3, the day before the contract was headed to arbitration, agreement was reached, Ledwith said. The WHEA has ratified the contract, which is effective for the period July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2022.
Ledwith said that under the terms of the new contract, teachers will receive a step increase, and those who are already at the top of their step will receive a wage increase of 1.5 percent in each of the contract’s three years.
Healthcare and dental coverage will move from the town’s High Deductible Health Plan to the SPP – a “progressive approach” to coverage, Ledwith said.
A key component of the SPP is a health enhancement program (HEP), which requires compliance with a wellness program that includes preventative doctor visits and recommended age-appropriate screenings such as mammograms and colonoscopies. “If you do not adhere to that health enhancement program there is a penalty,” Ledwith said.
Penalties include a $100 increase in the monthly premium, plus an additional deductible of $350 per person or $1,400 per family maximum – none of which will be paid by the Board.
The SPP “provides a lot of stability to our healthcare costs,” Ledwith said, and there will be much less fluctuation in the budget for healthcare costs.
Under the terms of the new contract, the employee healthcare contribution will increase from 18 percent to 20 percent.
The new contract also provides an increase in the tuition reimbursement fund from $60,000 to $75,000 on July 1, 2019, with a further increase from $75,000 to $80,000 on July 1, 2020. Teachers are provided reimbursement of up to $1,000 per year.
Two new joint labor/management committees will also be formed – one for the purposes of reviewing “reduction in force” language and the other to study student conduct protocols. Committee members have been identified and work will begin shortly, Ledwith told the Board.
Board Chair Carol Blanks said it’s important to recognize the great work that the teachers do every day. “You are all doing a fantastic job and I thank you,” she said.
“We are happy with the settlement,” Ledwith told We-Ha.com. He expressed his gratitude and said that the teachers recognized and appreciated the continued challenges of uncertainty in funding that the town will receive through the state budget.
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