North Haven teachers contract
North Haven's Selectboard just inked a new three year deal (NHR, by Ann DeMatteo) with their teacher's union. Some key points:
1) "Teachers won’t be receiving any new benefits and their health insurance co-pays will rise from 11.5 percent to 15 percent over the life of the contract."
2) 40% "of teachers have reached the maximum salary step, and will only get a general wage increase of 3 percent, 2.5 percent and 2.75 percent over the life of the contract, which is an average of 2.67 percent."
3) 60% "of the teachers will get an average raise of 4.22 percent over the three-year period, which includes wage and step increases."
Tim White
Town Council, 4th District
12 comments:
Well Ihave to sya it seems like a reasonabel contract to me. the teachers will pay a bit more for health care costs which are rising out of control The municipality pays more as do those receiving the benefits. As for salary increases, I cant argue with roughly
4 percent. Cost of living is rising faster than that so to at leat meet the cost of living increase is reasonable.
Fact is, we cant blame teachers for out of control costs, we can blame government. The State of Connecticut needs toi cut all pork barrel spending (artificial turf fields, mulitmillion dollar makeovers to nowhere). its time that resident stop re electing candidates who believe in the status quo. I can speak at least for myself in saying that in the next state election, I will be voting against incumbents in office (with the exception of some who deserve to stay)
I also think we are goong to see more andmore folks choosing to run as independents agains the controlling parties.I am tired of the political machiens whose only gaol is to win elections. I was deeply disturbed when I saw a letter written by a member of the Cheshire GOP regarding the senior tax freeze and how he phrased it in such a way that he concluded the goal was to ensure republicans elected to office in 2 years. As far as I am concered his position was misguided and reprehensible. It also why I dont trust the Republican Town Committee....I am not saying the DEMS are any better, but excuse my language, thsi is a damn community, not a political organization. The goal is the betterment of thr town and the good of its residents, not some Bs political agenda.
Wel, I have kept that letter and the event I run as an Independent in 2008, you can bet the folks in this town will have an opportunity to see that letter. Enough is enough.....
Anonymous 11:26 - Run for a town position is 2007, let the people decide. There might be people who think like you and you might be given the chance to make a change!!! It's worth a shot.
excuse me: the cost of living is primarily rising because of the cost of healthcare. the teachers don't have to worry about that becasue the school disctrict foots their bill.
How much do Cheshire Teachers contribute towards their healthcare? In other districts it avergaes around 15 percent.
Teachers contribute, I believe, 12 or 12.5 percent towards their medical benefits. Pretty good deal compared to most of us.
Cheshire's current contract is for three years. I think over the course of that three years, the healthcare % payment increases from around 12% to 15%. But I'm not certain about that.
Well 15 percent is reasonable as most employees in corporations are paying rouhgly 20 percent, of course our wages tend to be hihger as well. Adain, the problem isnt teacher wages or benefits. Education budgets are not going to decrease for obvious reasons and as they are typically the largest portion of the town budget they receive the most scrutiny. The real culprit and cuase of increasing property taxes isnt the education budget, its the reliance on residential taxes tu fund said budget. Until People in this town take their heads out of their behinds and relize that we need to allow retail development in this town we are going nowwhere.
Retail alone wont solve the problem ,but a large retail center will certainly ease the burden by increasing the taxroll, create jobs and keep money in the town instead og going into Hamden or wallingford etc. Its tiem to relzie that we need to bring in a major center like Canton and then continue to work to bring in commerical business as well. Both can go hand in hand.
Yeah, and retail demands absolutley no government services. Just ask Milford!!!
Anon 10:20, every business that comes in requires some givernment service and yes perhpas retail does a bit more. However, what sense does it make to continually turn it away. Got some news for you, its a pipe dream to believe that industry and corporations are going to locate in Cheshire. What is it we have to offer that they cannot get in states where the business environment is more friendly. This town needs to attract and develop a quality retail center while continuing to attract what little commercial business it can.
The idea that Cheshire is some holier than thouh town above having retail development is nonsense. The average taxpayer in this town cant afford any more property taxes and wants retail development.
Ab you really need to buy a dictionary.
No, I need to be able to type without having children climbing all over me!
And speaking of contracts, the schools' maintenance contract was recently settled and their medical benefit payments are going from the current 4% payment to 12% over the life of the contract. There's 32 people in that union.
We all know the education budget takes up the biggest chunk of the overall town budget, but I disagree that the education budget is the most scrutinized. Many on the boe, or I should say mostly all the dems, don't question the budget numbers in any great depth. They don't really know how the money is spent because they don't ask any detailed questions. They claim it's the tc's job to set the final number for the boe. When it gets to the tc, the majority of dems don't ask too many questions either (at least not any that really reveal how $ is spent). One tc member even said she didn't want to "blindly" cut the boe budget so she voted against any further cuts. By the way, she didn't even attend any of the boe's budget meetings. Scrutinized? I think not.
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