Thursday, 4:30 PM
Boston teachers reach tentative accord
By David Abel, GLOBE STAFF
After more than a year of tense negotiations and a threatened one-day strike, Boston teachers and the school system Tuesday night reached a tentative contact agreement that would boost teachers’ pay and have them contribute more to blunt the rising price of health insurance.
The agreement would raise teachers’ salaries between 13 and 14 percent over previously agreed-upon salary increases between September 2006 and August 2010. Over the same time, teachers would increase their contribution to health insurance premiums from 10 to 15 percent.
The agreement also allows for greater autonomy at 20 so-called superintendent’s -- or low-performing -- schools, enabling principals to extend their day, choose their curriculum, pay teachers for assuming extra responsibilities, and among other things, have more flexibility in hiring.
"Our prime goal was to fix underperforming schools," said Superintendent Michael G. Contompasis Tuesday night after school and union officials overcame their differences during a four-hour meeting at school headquarters on Court Street. "We think we have crafted an agreement that meets our needs and puts schools on the right track."
The Boston Teachers Union and the School Committee must approve the contract. Union leaders said they will recommend that members approve the pact when they vote on it on March 14.
The accord came on a day when a Suffolk Superior Court judge ruled the union must pay a $30,000 fine -- increasing by $10,000 a day -- for refusing to comply with a previous court order to rescind the union’s threat to strike.
The union suspended their threat to strike until members vote today. By the time members meet this afternoon, the fine against the union will have risen to $120,000, said union officials, who plan to appeal the decision.
"We take this as a real threat to unions everywhere," said Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union. "There isn’t a doubt that the threat of a strike brought us closer to a settlement."
Tuesday’s agreement also includes the school department’s commitment to maintaining small classes, with no increases in class-size limits at any grade level.
It provides for at least seven new pilot schools, one governed by the Boston Teachers Union, with additional compensation for some pilot school teachers who work extra hours.
The agreement also involves changes to the district’s performance evaluation process and a new program in which experienced teachers mentor new teachers.
"We believe this contract gives us the flexibility to hire top-notch educators who have the tools and resources they need to prepare our students for a successful future," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said in a statement.
Maria Sacchetti of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.
