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Schools

New Manchester Teacher Contract Approved

The school board unanimously approved the three-year contract, which includes a step-salary increases for staff, at their meeting Wednesday night.

After three months of negotiations, teachers in the Manchester school system have a new contract.

The agreement, which is for the period between July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2016, includes an overall increase in salaries of 8.36 percent over the next three years and requires the cost-sharing of retirees health insurance to double.

"We are happy," Vice President of the Manchester Education Association, Kevin Mack. "We will be able to retain some our talented young teachers because they will get the step increase," he said.

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Manchester, like many Connecticut towns, has frozen salary increases for in the past several years. According to Mack, teachers did not receive a step increase in pay for five out of the last 10 years.

"It causes a lot of good people to leave," he said, adding that the current contract was negotiating with the goal of teacher retention in mind.

Find out what's happening in Manchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In the new contract, the majority of teachers will receive their salary increase based on the step-scale process, while those at the top of the scale, due to their length of time working in the district, will receive a straight salary increase of 0.5 percent in the first year of the contract and 1 percent in the next two years, according to reports in the Hartford Courant and the Manchester Journal Inquirer.

Mack admits that there is one portion of the newly negotiated contract with is causing future retirees some "angst." 

"The cost-share of retirees health insurance is going to double in the next contract," he said. "But we knew if we went to arbitration on this we would lose it entirely."

School officials and the teachers union started the contract negotiations on July 19, and the contract was ratified by the MEA on Nov. 1, according to Patricia Brooks, assistant superintendent for finance and management. The Board of Directors now has 30 days to review the contract. If no action is taken then it will go into effect at that time.

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