Raises short of police, fire 3.5 percent gains, Harnois

By GERRY GOLDSTEIN, Valley Breeze & Observer Correspondent

SMITHFIELD - School officials and teachers' union representatives reached tentative agreement on a new three-year contract Sunday during a negotiating session that spanned nine hours.

The general membership of the union, NEA/Smithfield, planned a vote on the proposal late Tuesday, after The Valley Breeze & Observer deadline.

Union representatives declined to speculate on the outcome, but School Committee Chairwoman Virginia Harnois said she was confident that the system's 227 teachers would ratify the agreement.

Teachers reported to work on Monday as scheduled, for the start of two professional development days before schools were to open yesterday.

The Sunday talks, which featured both sides in separate rooms shuttling proposals back and forth through state-appointed mediator Bruce Kogan, bore out earlier predictions that despite some differences, issues would get settled before school started.

Harnois said the school board plans to ratify the agreement at its meeting next Tuesday.

Neither side would divulge details of the agreement, but Harnois said the raises involved did not reach the level of those approved for town police and firefighters in their last contract renewals.

Those two agreements, also for three years, call for annual raises of 3.5 percent.

Currently, teacher salaries range from $37,377 to $68,053 in ten annual steps. Teachers pay about 12 percent of their health insurance costs under the expiring contract.

Sunday's bargaining session, held at the NEA headquarters in Cranston, began at 2:30 p.m. and continued until 11:30 p.m.

Harnois said that reaching agreement required some give and take on both sides, and that she thinks taxpayers will be pleased with the result.

She said that in contract talks, which extended over a period of months, "Never once did our teachers threaten any kind of a job action."

The expiring teacher contract was the first to span three years. Prior to that, two-year contracts were the norm.

- Reach Gerry Goldstein at gerry76@cox.net.