Negotiations are still under way in Chicopee, Agawam and West Springfield.
SPRINGFIELD – A tentative contract agreement has been reached with teachers in the Springfield school district, while negotiations continue in other communities before the start of the school year.
Teachers have approved contracts in communities such as Westfield, Northampton, Amherst, and East Longmeadow. There is a tentative agreement in Holyoke with the 480-member union, according to Superintendent of Schools David L. Dupont, and negotiations are under way in Chicopee, Agawam and West Springfield.
Timothy T. CollinsTimothy T. Collins, president of the Springfield Education Association, and William E. Mahoney, the city’s labor relations director, confirmed the tentative agreement this week. Both sides have agreed not to reveal the specifics of the contract proposal until presented to the 2,600 members for a vote. The previous five-year contract expired June 30.
For the first time, the teachers union and city engaged in “interest-based bargaining,” rather than traditional bargaining, according to a joint statement released by Mahoney on behalf of both sides. The bargaining method was described as requiring “a collaborative, problem solving form of negotiations to issues raised by either the (School) Committee or the Association,” he said.
The parties had met on multiple occasions beginning in January.
The School Department laid off approximately 120 teachers at the end of the school year, and has recalled 72, according to Azell M. Cavaan, the department’s chief communications officer. Additional teachers will be recalled before Sept. 1, but the final number is not yet known, she said.
Contracts, however, have expired in Chicopee and are scheduled to expire Aug. 31, in West Springfield and Agawam.
In Chicopee, Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette, who serves as School Committee chairman, said he has told unions the city cannot afford to raise salaries without laying off employees. The teachers contract expired in July.
Agawam officials are in negotiations with the 387-member Agawam Education Association and West Springfield officials are meeting with representatives of the West Springfield Education Association.
In Westfield, teachers approved a one-year contract with the School Committee on Tuesday that provides no salary increase nor any professional development funding.
The Longmeadow School Committee reached a two-year contract with teachers in January that provides no pay raises. The contract goes through August 2011.
In East Longmeadow, teachers just ratified a two-year contract that extends through August 2012.
Teachers in Ware have a contract that runs to June 30, 2011. Superintendent of Schools Mary-Elizabeth Beach said negotiations will begin in the second semester of the coming school year.
The prior contract for Springfield teachers was settled with the former, state-imposed Finance Control Board in 2006, with a retroactive clause, and followed a prolonged impasse, public protests by the union and litigation. The control board dissolved a year ago after a five-year mission to confront major deficits and to restore the city to fiscal stability.
The tentative agreement was reached by union and city officials at the close of the school year in June, with the union choosing to wait until late August or September to schedule the ratification vote, Collins said.
“We will bring the package to the membership,” Collins said. “The bargaining team will unanimously recommend it in light of these economic times.”
Currently, teacher salaries generally range from $36,000 to $67,600.
If approved by teachers, the contract will then have to be brought to the School Committee for a vote, Mahoney said.
Staff writers Ted LaBorde, Fred Contrada, Jeanette Deforge, Mike Plaisance, Sandra Constantine, Elizabeth Ramon, Diane Lederman and John Appleton contributed to this report.