TOPSHAM — After several months of contentious negotiations, Maine School Administrative District 75 and the Merrymeeting Teachers Association has reached an agreement on a proposed 3-year contract.
The school board is scheduled to vote on the agreement Thursday night.
The district includes Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Harpswell and Topsham.
School board chairwoman Linda Hall said Wednesday she can’t discuss details of the new contract until it is ratified by the board. She confirmed it does include a pay increase that will be retroactive to the end of August when the most current 3-year contract expired.
“We’re pleased that we came to a resolution and we look forward to proceeding normally with the education of our students,” Hall said. “The challenge for the board has been wanting to do more for employees but also balancing how it affects our taxpayers.”
The district and teachers union started negotiations in January.
According to the association, a teacher with 15 years of experience and a master’s degree earns $61,454 in Brunswick, $62,898 in Bath and $64,316 at Freeport; but would only earn $54,300 in MSAD 75. The gap widens for teachers with 20 years of experience.
The school board included $500,000 for teacher salary increases in its proposed 2019-20 budget. In May, voters added an additional $600,000 to the budget at a district budget meeting. The resulting $42.1 million spending plan was approved by voters at the polls in June.
When all attempts at previous negotiations failed, the Maine Labor Relations Board appointed a three-person panel that visited the district Oct. 9 on a fact-finding mission. The board administers and enforces the state’s laws that govern collective bargaining for public sector employees and employers.
Neil Daly, executive director of the Maine Labor Relations Board, said Monday that both parties reached their own resolution on Oct. 30 so the panel did not issue a report.
Hall said the outside mediators on the panel helped the school district and teachers association reach an agreement.
“It’s been a long process,” she said.
Nicole Karod, the president-elect of the Merrymeeting Teachers Association, also declined to comment on the agreement until the school board votes on it Thursday. That is the final step in the process, she said.
“The vote is tomorrow night,” she said Wednesday. “After tomorrow night, as I know the district has said, there will be a lot more information.”
The school board meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at Williams-Cone School in Topsham.
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