001good evening everyone uh call this meeting to order this is Board of Ed special Board of Ed business meeting January 5th 20121 Carol can I have a roll call for quorin please if you are talking Carol we can't hear you okay you're on AB ask again Carol uh call for Corum yeah we can't hear actually you know what I'll do that for Carol I can hear her through the wall but there must issue with your speaker situation so it does say you're unmuted but we can't hear you so Mr grippo here Mr martelly here miss Howen here miss ham here miss herrian here Mr paragini here Mr White uh Mr chairman you have a quorum thank you everyone uh ask that we stand for a pledge of allegiance Jeff if or Vincent if you want
002to put the flag up on the screen that'd be awesome you got it Jeff yep okay I pledge of Allegiance the flag nation under God Nation liberty and justice for all and justice for all little clunky oh we need that thank you uh well Happy New Year everyone uh for those of you watching if there are any if there's any watching this is a uh special meeting of the Board of Education we have pretty much one item on the agenda related to Personnel so hopefully this will not be a lengthy meeting there is a policy committee meeting at 6:30 so we'll do our best not to run over uh before we get to I number three do we have any audience uh Jeff we do not surpris there moving on number three before to stand
003committee starting with Personnel uh we have a discussion approval of the rise contract between chure Board of Education and chure administrative Personnel I guess Jeff will have you kick it off yeah I could do a quick overview um is you recall we met back in November um and unanimously adopted a negotiated agreement with the treasure administrative Personnel the uh agreement subsequently went to the Town Council uh upon review and I think in consideration of um contracts their negotiations they in the context of the town and uh they ultimately rejected that contract um I met with vin um and their negotiations the administrative negotiations team uh we talked about the fact that you know arbitration would be the next step and unfortunately you know with everything else that everybody is juggling right now um you know
004they made the decision and I give them a lot of credit to say you know what we'll we'll look at revising terms if that will support this process um and so they did propose uh we work together with to to create ultimately new terms um so the uh previous um situation was that the the wages um were reduced to in year 1 1.75 Allin year 2 2.50 year three 2.65 um the insurance was increased in terms of the HSA co-share to uh 12 13 and 15% in each uh year of the contract uh and that goes up from 11% uh that it currently is um additionally they had an annuity increase of $1,000 uh that would be $1,000 in the first year of the contract that same a th000 in the second same th000 in
005the third and that's been reduced to 500 in year 1 750 in year 2 th000 in year three so um you know we again uh respect the job they're doing and I know the council does as well but um cognizant of the the big picture um we we think that this agreement uh is even more favorable uh to the town and therefore I would recommend that you support it uh unless there's general questions on just the history of this uh I'm willing to entertain a motion in case we want to get into deeper discussion about the particulars of the contract that being said uh fate do you have a motion to make yeah I move that the cheser Board of Education approves the collective bargaining agreement with the treasure administrative Personnel for the period of
006July 1 2021 through July July 30 2024 with revisions per the superintendent memorandum to the board of ed dated uh January 5th 2021 thank you Faith as Z second Katherine seconds discussion Ann head in up first and then 10 go ahead an hi everyone um I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the administrators for going back and renegotiating this contract um I thought that the contract that we had prior to it being um dismissed by the Town Council was fair it was negotiated in good faith and it helped us the Board of Ed to um keep our budget balanced knowing that we needed over the years the coming years to um get these administrative salaries up to where they need to be um so I just want to let the administrators know the
007whole group know that how much that I appreciate that you were willing to back instead of going to arbitration um that you were willing to go back and uh take a second look at what you could do and um I just I'll leave it at that I appreciate the effort that you put into this after being denied all of us being denied our first um um contract that we that we had all agreed on so thank you I appreciate all that effort and I appreciate all that you do thank you an uh Tim you're up next thanks Tony so yeah I I I agree I appreciate what uh an said I appreciate what the administrators are are doing you know everybody's got a difficult time right now now including School administrators uh Jeff you have
008there's three main pieces to this the uh healthc care the what is it an annual annuity six it jumps up to six grand as well as the salary basically um so you had said I believe you had said before that on balance within the dur they are our administrators paid at the very bottom of it and does that in both the salary and the annuity where they're basically by and large paid at the bottom not the healthcare benefits that's a different thing but just talking about those two pieces yeah I think generically speaking the salary plus annuity is at the bottom of the dir okay the insurance is the best in the dir okay okay all right thank you and I'm planning to support this so thank you Jack thank you uh Katherine and Adam
009thank you Mr chair um I just want to uh add my thanks as well um to the administrators uh we are really lucky in Chesire that we have such a strong team of uh School administrators and um their willingness to go back to the table and try to work through you know these issues and really come up with a fairly meaningful uh change uh to the original agreement that we had negotiated um speaks a lot to their integrity and their character and and uh we're just very lucky and and so um I know that we as a board have uh uniformly been supportive of our principles and administrative staff um and I just want to you know say again thank you and I will uh happily support this motion thanks thank you thanks Katherine uh
010Adam you're up next thank you uh I'll begin by echoing all of the uh great comments that came before me and um the uh the question I have and maybe I missed it the first time um that where there's the annuity portion up top and then there is something about an administrators receive an additional $1,000 to their 403b um and so so what what's the difference between the two is an annuity is just that a a cash uh almost like a bonus in the first no an annuity is a payment it's it is the 403b so um in the annuity we make a contribution um to the if you know whatever the the retirement uh savings account of their choice we offer a variety of uh annuity programs for all of our employees and they
011can apply this toward that annuity account so that uh right now in their contract it's a $5,000 annuity um the previous contract that we negotiated moved that to 6,000 in year one year two and year three the revised contract takes it back to 5500 in Year One 5750 in year 2 6,000 in year three um so basically you know it reduces our um cost by 30% over the life of the contract right so that so there's no difference between the two between that thatting okay so that was just annuity and a 403b I'm sorry we use them kind of interchangeably okay so was that an artifact left over that thousand that's not part of that's just different yeah I'm not um sure where you're referencing but in in the memorandum in the benefit there's a
012line toward the end that says they receive an additional $1,000 annuity it seems like it's in addition to yeah that would be an error and I apologize if that's the case yeah so the that that that settlement that the administrators agreed to was the part at the top correct and I apologize I see exactly what you're talking about now and yeah that's that's not accurate okay thank you I'm sorry Andrew Andrew you're up um faith I skip you yeah I think Faith had her hand up first sorry I I I read the Sigh from your lips I'm going on mute Faith it's you Faith you're up then Andrew yeah mute Faith unmute oh I got it I got it sorry um Andre is gonna say youth before Beauty so you go I'm fine I'm still
013looking at something so all are you sure all right well I mean I was e I'm fine okay I was gonna Echo what everybody else said and you know um I think this is a good faith compromise um avoiding the ugly process of arbitration um and we have from my experience and from folks who have been here and folks that I've dealt with in the administrative level across the district we have top tier administrators in our district um who if you look at some spreadsheets are at some of the lower end of the dur B pay scale um so I think it also speaks the willingness for them to negotiate and come to the table with a compromise I think it speaks to that sometimes it's not just about the money but liking where you
014work and believing in the that we have a great School District here and so I'm glad that they stayed and were able to negotiate and I think this is great for everybody so thanks Andrew anyone else um I just want to confirm so Jeff that $1,000 payment is should be stricken or that's still there it should it should say 500 in the first year 750 in the second year and a th in the third year yeah I apologize we both missed that when we prepared the update I got it okay thanks and um so and Jeff to confirm you're saying that at least the insurance package is one of the best in the durs in terms of what uh our administrators pay as a co-share okay it is very low compared to what most der
015be pay I then what would you say the average is probably like 18 19% yeah I would say it's creeping towards 20% if you look at the averages okay and so they'll be at 15 at the at the culmination of this contract okay all right and and just in terms of real dollars however I mean it's not a huge um depending on what um what plan you take you're not talking about you know that's not a a $10,000 impact the five to 10% the the 15 to 19% that's not going to cost like us $10,000 more an administrator anything like that it's it's pretty small not worried about it I I mean want to see them be top somewhere um and and so and how about the cost share the the deductibles how do we
016Fair versus others it's pretty much standard uh 24 okay because that you know having just gone through like a $10,000 deductive last year you I realized just how high that can be um but anyway I just um I I Echo what everybody's been saying I am um certainly grateful to the administrators for going back to the table on this one um they didn't have to and they did and as Andrew says uh it's a testament to the fact that they like their jobs and I also appreciate the negotiators who went back and um in good faith and you all worked it out in a difficult situation so I I too support this that's all great thank you I think it's Sone yeah I I'll Echo want to said uh yeah again when the the first
017iteration uh the conts negotiated I thought even back then the administrators and the whole team were you know fair and collaborative you know like any negotiation so back and forth but this year for me it seemed it was you know certainly more open um and folks the table trying to work it out and the board unanimously approved the the first uh as an indicated the first go of this contract because we thought it was fair then uh I certainly think it's fair now and you know I just want to uh iterate that you know when uh we compare our salaries for administrators I know we're not we're quite near near the bottom combined other districts but but we still have leaders that want to come work in chesher and I think we recently had an
018administrator to come on board that you know comparably took a pay cut in some ways to be here so we do want to remain competitive um you know with our conversation attract great leaders I I Echo what everyone said we have um as far as I'm concerned outstanding administrators principles uh especially during time of covid I know everyone's had to step up and den some they hand a lot of things and we certainly appreciate what they do and so I certainly support this contract and I do want to thank our administrators group for you know being patient working with us and I Echo the fact that if this passes uh with the town it does saves US money from arbitration or the things which could be best best used you know for administrators and students
019supporting operating budgets so that being said I will certainly support this and I want to thank Jeff and Vin and Marlene the entire team for for helping get this done for us so that being said uh the motion is that we move that the chesher board education approves the collective bargain agreement with the chure administrative Personnel for the period of July 1st 2021 through June 30th 2024 with revisions per the superintendent memor memorandum to the Board of Education dated January 5th 2021 uh if all is in favor either raise your hand or say I it is unanimous awesome thank you team thank you and this will now go on to the town and um Jee you have any idea when the Town Council may take this up um I believe it's going to be I
020was just looking I think it's the 12th oh great so fairly excellent again thank you thanks everyone we do not have anything else on the agenda uh you know fortunately I don't have my meeting uh upcoming meetings but I do know next Thursday I believe the superintendent's budget presentation I think that is I'm sorry the 14th yes yes so uh I'm sorry I don't have that in front of us but it will be it will be a virtual meeting uh we'll set the agenda out there but we're all anxious looking forward to the superintendent's budget proposal next week so hope you can tune in and join us for that that being said uh seen as we have no old business and no new business would someone like to adjourn make a mo to adjourn the
021meeting I move cther 10 seconds in fact he's Frozen in perpetuity with his hand up all those in favor I I meeting is adjourned thank you everyone and uh policy committee meeting is up next if anybody's watching you're soon welcome tune into that one for the policy committee other than that thought to everyone soon have a