Contract negotiations are expected to continue Wednesday morning.
JAY – School officials have spent $65,000 of consultant and legal fees pertaining to labor negotiations since November of 2001.
School Committee Chairman Clint Brooks said the $65,000 represents less than 1 percent of the $21 million in salary and benefits being negotiated for a three-year period of time.
The Jay School Committee has completed three-year contracts with administrators and secretaries.
Two more contracts – custodians/bus drivers and food service staff – are up for ratification by the board May 15. Education technician contract negotiations are just beginning, and the teachers’ contract remains unsettled.
Negotiations continue at 9 a.m. Wednesday between school officials and teachers with state mediator John Alfano. Teachers have been working without a new contract since September 2002.
Brooks said it was worth the money to have consultant Ann Chapman, affiliated with the Drummond Woodsum & MacMahon law firm out of Portland, work with school negotiators to help negotiate fair contracts with school staff.
“I think spending less than 1 percent of the cost is a pretty good investment,” Brooks said.
When negotiations started, Brooks said the committee was at a pivotal point and felt it would be a mistake if members didn’t have a professional to help them complete contracts.
Brooks said it’s his guess that committee members won’t need to hire a chief negotiator when it’s time to renegotiate the three-year contracts.
As of early March, School Committee members had spent at least $21,660 of the $65,000 solely on contract negotiations with teachers.
School Superintendent Stephen Cottrell said earlier this month that he suggested the board hire a professional negotiator to help level the playing field during contract negotiations.
Teachers and other staff members can choose whether to pay dues to multilevel associations, or unions, that include bargaining representation, legal services and professional development services.
The Jay Education Association had teachers negotiating the contract for the first year of negotiations that began in fall 2001.
When bargaining went to mediation a year later, it was then that JEA called on the state union to help with contract negotiations.
Contract talks between teachers and school officials went to fact-finding. The School Committee paid $4,380, half of the fact-finding cost, with JEA responsible for the other half.
The School Committee rejected the independent fact-finding panel’s nonbinding recommendations to compromise on wage increases and health insurance contributions.
Brooks said at the time that the costs were too high for taxpayers. The panel member representing school officials rejected the recommendations of the other two fact-finders.
JEA members accepted the agreement, including recommendations that they contribute triple the amount they currently contribute to insurance and that they receive less of a wage increase than the union proposed.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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