School Committee Reaches Contract Agreement with Teachers

After eight months of negotiations, the Wayland School Committee has reached a four-year collective bargaining agreement with the Wayland Teachers Association (WTA).

According to a press release from Wayland Public Schools, the new agreement aligns with practices common in other school districts and also addresses resident concerns about the long-term costs to the town.

The new agreement is structured into one-year and three-year sections, with the first year covering July 1, 2013-June 30, 2014. The subsequent three-year agreement covers July 1, 2014-June 30, 2017.

Over the course of the contract, teachers will receive a 6 percent total cost of living raise in addition to step and lane increases. The press release reads that additional significant elements of the contract include:

- A new salary schedule for teachers hired after July 1, 2013 that eliminates the uneven increases from one step to the next in the current salary schedule.

- A new lane to reward teachers for additional graduate coursework above a Masters’ degree.

- Replacement of the current retirement payment provision with reasonable longevity stipends that are pensionable through the MA Teachers’ Retirement System and are commensurate with other school districts; currently-employed teachers have the option of continuing to receive the retirement stipend in the agreement or to opt into the new longevity payment system.

- Expiration of the Health Reimbursement Account in FY15, with the payment of a modest one-time payment to be used by the WTA for the benefit of its members for, extraordinary medical expenses among other things

- Replacement of the provision granting an unlimited number of personal days with a provision which grants certain paid personal leave days for specified reasons, such as bereavement leave, which is consistent with other school districts.

- Additional allocated time for teachers to prepare for their classes and other newly instituted programs, including state mandated and district initiatives.

According to the press release, the negotiations for this contract were conducted with an awareness of the concerns expressed by commun ity members about the contract.

"... the School Committee and the WTA believe these successor agreements are directly responsive to those concerns while maintaining Wayland’s tradition of attracting and retaining exceptional teachers," the press release reads.

This contract follows the trend of the prior contract in making changes to the salary, healthcare and retirement offerings that "will result in a more sustainable, long-term cost structure for the Town,' the release reads.