Westbrook teachers finally have a new contract.
The Westbrook School Committee voted 5-0 Thursday to approve a collective bargaining agreement with the Westbrook Education Association. The association also voted on the proposed contract Tuesday in a closed meeting. The two parties have been negotiating for more than a year, and teachers worked with an expired contract for nearly 300 days.
The agreement covers nearly 260 employees — more than half the staff in Westbrook schools. Their most recent contract expired in August. When routine negotiations and mediation failed, the two parties turned to a state panel to resolve their dispute, a step taken by only a small number of districts each year. The battle became public this spring when teachers protested at a Westbrook School Committee meeting and outside their schools. But the Maine Labor Relations Board sided with the district on several key issues in May.
Both parties said the financial components of the contract — salary increases and benefits — had already been decided.
Negotiations are confidential, but the decision from the state labor board revealed more details about the conflict.
The association wanted to add language to the contract about teacher workload and scheduling. For example, two new sections would have spelled out the amount of preparation time afforded to teachers. One would have compensated teachers at a reduced rate for extra hours if their work days were extended. Another would have slightly increased pay for teachers with classes over a certain size — 15 students for kindergarten teachers and 18 students for teachers in other grades.
However, district leadership argued those ideas fell under the umbrella of education policy, which cannot be bargained and must be set by the school committee. On seven of nine proposals, the state labor board agreed.
The parties came to their agreement on the remaining two proposals and other unresolved issues within the last two weeks.