Stoughton Teachers Association, School Department Settle Contract

After 18 months of negotiations and more than 25 official bargaining sessions, the Stoughton Teachers Association (STA) and the Stoughton Public Schools have ratified a new contract, according to School Committee Chairman Tom Colburn and STA President Sue Cogliano.

The sides agreed upon a three-year contract on Wednesday, which retroactively started August 31, 2010 and will expire August 31, 2013.

The most recent contract expired on August 31, 2010 and teachers since have been working without one since.

“Our team brought something forward to our members we felt comfortable ratifying,” Cogliano said.

“[I’m] glad it’s done before the end of the school year,” she added.

Colburn expressed a similar sentiment as said he was “very pleased” the two sides had come to an agreement.

“I’m most pleased the teachers will be able to go home this summer with the contract settled,” he said. 

The STA ratified the contract Wednesday afternoon at the O’Donnell Middle School with 240 STA members present. The School Committee ratified it Wednesday evening prior to the start of Town Meeting.

, which are “the salary increments teachers receive in their early years as they gain experience and become professionals,” will continue to be retroactively paid for this school year. By the last paycheck teachers receive this school year, the step increases owed will have been paid in full, Colburn said.

As a result, Cogliano said the STA will withdraw their unfair labor charge.

Meanwhile, step increases will be a part of the new contract as well. The new contract also calls for modest percentage increases in base salary each year for the teachers, Cogliano said.

“It’s nice,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marguerite Rizzi said of the new contract. “Negotiations are inevitable [and] not always easy.”

During the latter end of the negotiation process the STA asked its members to refrain from partaking in some volunteer activities. That is over, Cogliano said.

“If a teacher wants to do something, they can,” she said.

Cogliano clarified that during the negotiations teachers did not give up all voluntary activities and did not withhold anything that directly benefited or impacted students. Teachers, for example, still volunteered at the Stoughton High Class Night, the SHS Graduation, the SHS Senior Prom, wrote college recommendations and provided extra academic help for students, Cogliano said.

The Stoughton Teachers association includes 341 teachers and eight nurses.

Members of the STA’s negotiating team, according to the STA website, include Will Kellogg (SHS), Melanie Ingrao (SHS), Karen Bullock (OMS), Bill Gorman (SHS), Merrill King (Gibbons) and Maria Capobianco (Retired Consultant), as well as Cogliano (OMS).

Negotiations spanned from January 2010 until June 2011. To give an idea of how long these bargaining sessions lasted, Colburn said he is the only school committee member left on the bargaining team who is still serving from when negotiations first began. Joyce Husseini, elected in April 2010, joined Colbrun as the other school committee representative on the bargaining team.

In these 18 months, Husseini, and George Dolinsky have been elected and Deb Sovinee has been appointed to the committee and later reelected. Longtime school committee member Allan Mills does not participate in contract discussions because his wife is a teacher in the Stoughton Public Schools.

In recent months, STA members have become more vocal as negotiations continued without a resolution. The STA petitioned the school committee multiple times for the “right to a fair and equitable contact,” before a bargaining session on May 3 and had 12 teachers and two nurses speak about their concerns about the negotiations at a .

The most recent bargaining session was May 12. There was “a lot of progress, [but] no closure,” Colburn said.

But talks continued, and the two sides were able to agree to a deal, a deal that “works for both sides,” Cogliano said.

“It’s nice to get a contract,” Colburn said. “Reward the teachers [and] take away the anxiety a lack of contract [presented].”

From this point forward, Collburn said the plan is to implement the contract and maintain a “healthy relationship” with the STA.