Norwich
The two sides have advanced drastically different proposals for teachers’ health care plans, and the negotiators for the teachers have proposed raises that the School Board appears unwilling to give in this economic climate.
The teachers union, a local branch of the Vermont National Education Association, opened the negotiations in October asking for a 12 percent raise applied over three years.
In negotiation notes last month, the board said it couldn’t meet that figure “due to economic conditions in the local environment.” Union negotiators countered with a 7 percent raise over two years.
The teachers’ opening request sparked a debate on the town email forum, where some posters questioned why educators were asking for raises above the rate of inflation.
Chris Katucki, for instance, compared the proposed wage increases to the next cost-of-living increase for Social Security beneficiaries, which will be 0.3 percent in 2017.
“With that in mind, I question any increase in salaries beyond inflation,” he wrote. “Why is not the annual STEP an adequate merit increase?”
Other posters countered that the high educational standard at Marion Cross was directly related to teachers’ compensation.
P.J. Stanwood, a massage therapist from North Pomfret who practices in Norwich, broke down the raises, noting that they would equal 4 percent each year.
“That doesn’t seem lavish with the quality education going on at Marion Cross School,” Stanwood wrote. “Call me crazy.”
The two Listerv posters this week confirmed the authenticity of their emails, but didn’t immediately offer further comment.
Statistics from the Vermont Agency of Education place Marion Cross School among Vermont’s top-ranked schools on statewide educational assessments. They also show that its teachers collected an average salary of $69,480 in the 2015-16 school year, compared to the state average of $57,063.
The gap between teachers’ and board members’ proposals is also wide for health care benefits. Under the latest three-year teacher contract for the Marion Cross School, which runs through June 2017, teachers are paying about 16 percent of their premiums, with the rest picked up by the district.
The insurance plans cited in their contracts also feature deductibles of between $100 and $600 for basic medical care. The new plans will have considerably higher deductibles, but Norwich teachers are asking that the district reimburse them for that cost.
The NEA negotiators this fall also proposed to decrease teachers’ share of premium costs to 2 percent, or 98 percent for the district; School Board members, on the other hand, have put forward a range of plans that the district would reimburse at around 60 to 80 percent of coverage cost.
Since the beginning of negotiations, union representatives have lowered their ask to a 95 percent reimbursement rate by the district.
It is unclear where the two sides stand now because a mutual agreement limits what comments they can make to outside parties. Negotiators for the district and for the teachers this week declined to comment, other than to point a reporter to meeting minutes.
Minutes for the latest contract session, held on Monday, say only that the parties met in a closed-door session for about 80 minutes.
The talks have become tense at times, according to the minutes, which include a statement from the School Board on Nov. 21 that criticized the union negotiators for making “improper” and “unfair” demands.
Teachers had asked the School Board to give its offers for health care and salary in percentages, rather than dollar amounts.
The board initially refused, noting that its proposed health care plans differed in deductible amounts and premium sharing, and thus were not easily reducible to percentages. The teachers, according to the board’s statement, threatened an “impasse” if their request wasn’t met.
“We also think the Association’s demand and the threat of impasse is improper and constitutes an unfair practice because there are several items remaining on the table that have nothing to do with monetary aspects that could be discussed,” the School Board negotiators, Neil Odell and Tom Candon, said in their statement.
All the same, the board agreed to include the percentages.
Contract negotiations for the Dresden and Hanover school districts, where Norwich students attend middle and high school after Marion Cross, concluded in January, with the school boards there agreeing to a mix of increases and cuts in salaries and benefits.
For the next three years, the boards approved cost-of-living wage increases of 0.5 percent at Hanover High School, 1.5 percent at Richmond Middle School and 1.75 percent at the Bernice A. Ray Elementary School — less than the yearly 2 percent raises that teachers were receiving before.
Teachers in Hanover and Dresden saw a mixed result on their health plans. The new contract added family plan deductibles as high as $3,000, where before there were none, yet will mandate that the district pay 95 percent of premiums, where teachers before paid 15 to 20 percent.
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.