PORTLAND – A new teachers’ union contract that will save Portland taxpayers nearly $2 million in salary concessions in the coming year requires the school district to pay 80 percent of the union president’s salary and benefits.

The union currently absorbs 80 percent of Kathleen Casasa’s annual compensation. She has been the union president for more than 20 years, representing about 600 members and more than 100 nonmembers in Maine’s largest school district.

Casasa, a special education teacher, has been on full-time release from teaching duties for about five years. During that time, the district has paid 20 percent of her salary and benefits, Casasa said Wednesday.

Under the three-year contract that takes effect Sept. 1, the district will pay 80 percent of Casasa’s $93,690 in salary and benefits and the union will pay 20 percent. That means taxpayers will pay $74,952 and union members will pay $18,738.

Portland is the only district in Maine where the teachers’ union president is on full-time, paid release from teaching duties, but similar arrangements are more common in other states, said Superintendent Jim Morse.

Casasa said she’s “a fierce advocate” for teachers and the district.

Morse said the change in Casasa’s pay arrangement is a small concession compared to what teachers gave up in the new contract, which was posted Wednesday on the district’s website.

Neither Morse nor Casasa mentioned the change when they announced terms of the pending contract settlement late last month, though The Portland Press Herald asked specifically about concessions made by the district.

Ninety-two percent of union members voted to go without cost-of-living or step salary increases in 2011-12, saving the district about $720,000, Morse said.

They also agreed to increase the minimum time between salary increases for professional development from three years to four years, which will save about $110,000 in the coming year, Morse said.

Overall, the contract will save the school district $830,000 in wages in the coming year, and may help save 10 of the 60 positions that initially were targeted for elimination. The City Council will vote Monday on a proposed $89.6 million school budget that would start July 1.

“This contract definitely favors the school system,” Morse said.

The new contract also added five teaching days to the school calendar, increasing the number of days that Portland students will be in classrooms to 180, surpassing the state-required 175 days.

To spend five additional days in the classroom, teachers agreed to convert three professional days to teaching days, and to work two more days without additional pay.

If teachers had demanded more money for the additional work, it would have cost the district about $1 million per year, Morse said.

Under the contract, step increases, given for longevity, will resume in 2012-13, at a cost of about $800,000 to the district. The teachers will get a 3 percent increase in salary base in 2013-14, which will be the first such increase in four years.

In addition to paying 80 percent of the union president’s salary, district officials agreed to nonbinding contract language that calls for the school board and superintendent to include teachers in decisions that affect students’ learning.

Morse noted that several other teachers are released from teaching duties so they can do other jobs in the district.

One of them is Suzette Olafsen, who was a social studies teacher at Portland High School.

The district reassigned Olafsen last fall to serve as the teacher leader who ensures that teachers’ professional development work meets standards outlined in the contract.

Olafsen also serves as the union’s chief negotiator.

The district pays 100 percent of Olafsen’s annual salary and benefits as a teacher leader, which total $83,441, Morse said. Olafsen works in the district’s central office and is on full-time release from teaching duties.

Olafsen replaced Gary Vines, who retired in June. 

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:

kbouchard@pressherald.com

 

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