Newport teachers state their case for pay hikes

NEWPORT — The following report was shared with the Newport School Board at its meeting on Thursday, Jan 24, by Lisa Ferrigno, co-president of the Newport Teachers Association:

In July 2018, the Newport Teachers Association (NTA) entered into negotiations with the Newport School Board. The NTA and the School Board both had set a goal to remedy the pay inequity in Newport in order to retain and attract new teachers. The NTA came up with 20 different salary proposals, tried many different formulas to achieve our goal while keeping the burden on the taxpayer to a minimum. In November, after impasse was declared, we went to Fact Finding.

Fact Finding Report

The fact-finding report was prepared by Alan McCausland, PhD based on testimony provided by the Newport Teacher’s Association and the Newport School Board. Mr. McCausland took all of the evidence presented into consideration and made a determination about the unresolved issues between the teachers and the board.

He has recommended a three-year contract, which moves the teachers to their correct experience steps, raises the bottom step 1 percent and most importantly strives to retain our hard working, experienced staff.

The report points out the cost of the high rate of turnover in Newport. Last year we lost 33 percent of our staff. According to the Policy Institute, the estimated cost of replacing 27 teachers, factoring in all expenses in personnel hours related to processing a teachers exit, as well as costs to recruit, hire and train new teachers in a rural area is $297,000. And more importantly, it is costly in terms of its impact on the education mission for the students.

Fixing the Steps

McCausland explained it very well in the Fact Finding Report. “Experience steps should reflect what a teacher’s experience is; for example, teachers on Step 1 are (or should be) experiencing their first year as a teacher.” It’s common for beginning teachers to start at a lower level and then increase their salary as they gain experience.

“Failure to pass the Newport School District’s budget warrant article last March might not have had such dire consequences, if it had been a ‘one off event’ however, it was not a ‘one off event.’ The history of the Staff Collective Bargaining experience in Newport shows that the staff has lost experience increases eight times in the last 20 years, and four experience steps have been lost in just the last six years. This three-year contract will move teachers back onto their correct experience step—so that their pay is commensurate with their experience.

I said I recently discovered there is some confusion about the steps. It seems when we say “fix the steps,” some in the community thought the teachers were getting back pay from yeas when the contract did not pass. That is not so. We simply mean, we will pay teachers based on their experience.

Newport’s salary schedule is 25 percent lower than the average salary of the 20 schools in a recent salary study. They are lowest among school districts in the Newport Region that have high schools. Newport base pay is $34,363; Claremont is $36,228; Fall Mountain, $43,926; Mascoma, $37,992, and Sunapee, $40,270.

The NTA moved to a less expensive insurance policy, the same policy in which the rest of the district is insured, and the same policy used by the Newport town employees. This policy will mean an increase in out-of-pocket costs to teachers. However, we agreed to move to this policy to save the town money and help fund our contract.

Now we are faced with additional budget cuts resulting in a reduction-in-force, losing even more teachers. In the past 10 years we have lost three full-time Title 1 positions at the elementary school, and an intervention teaching position, we have lost the position of a Technology teacher. Currently, 85 percent of the freshmen class at Newport Middle High School do not have a full schedule because there are not enough teachers to teach all the classes.

We cannot keep cutting spending to education and expect better results. The children of Newport deserve the same educational opportunities as their neighbors.

“Please register to vote, and attend the Deliberative Session at 9 a.m. on Feb. 2 at the high school gym. We need your help to save education in Newport,” Ferrigno said.