Dover Teachers Union, School Board agree on contract: How raises will be distributed

DOVER — The Dover Teachers’ Union and the city School Board have come to a compromise that would give teachers a nearly 4% raise, after months of negotiations being at an impasse.

Teachers started the school year without a contract, but it likely won't be long before they have one in hand for the 2022-23 school year. Now that the union and district have agreed upon the salary schedule, it will go before the City Council to finalize the contract.

Both the school board and union proposals would have allocated $1.8 million toward pay raises that lowered the salary steps, but the union and the city's school leaders had different ideas about how to allocate those funds between salary schedule steps. The board had sought to offer more to new teachers to help with hiring, while the union sought to reward mid-career teachers.

In this new salary schedule teachers across the board will receive a roughly 4% increase in pay, compared to the existing salary schedule.

“It's a compromise, but the important thing is it gives everyone a raise,” School Board Chair Carolyn Mebert said. “The big thing is it increases starting wages, which is one of the things that we were looking to prioritize as a board. It also helps those at the top, who did not receive any raises last year in the current salary schedule.”

In Dover: 70-plus new houses, condos, apartments approved

DTU President Lisa Dillingham called the agreement a true compromise for both parties. She said she is glad the school board and union have come to a resolution that both sides can benefit from because "our teachers deserve the best."

“It was not what we originally wanted, but it gives all our members raises and allows the school board to bring the bottom step and top step up in pay like they wanted to,” Dillingham said. "Not all our priorities could be met, but those are things we will focus on for the next contract."

Mebert said that the agreement is over the $1.8 million the City Council earmarked for the raises by $12,000. Mebert said the district isn’t concerned, because the wage study cost is lower than expected, and it expects there are other areas or unexpected cost savings they can pool together to make up the difference.

What will the new contract include for raises?

The new salary schedule remains at 17 steps in the pay scale, with teachers moving up a step as they gain years of experience, and gives a broad sweep of raises across the board.

The union compromised on its goal to reduce the number of steps of the salary for this contract. However that can be evaluated in the next negotiation cycle.

In Dover: Adelle's Coffeehouse sold to owners of Caffe Kilim in Portsmouth

It raises the starting salary for teachers, while also supporting teachers with more experience.

For example, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree in the current salary schedule would earn $37,000 in their first year. In this new agreement, their starting salary would be $40,000. The following year, that same teacher would move up a step and earn $41,482.

While the starting salary for teachers isn’t as high as the $42,969 that the district proposed, Mebert said that the board supports this latest proposal.

In the current salary, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree reaching step 17, after 17 years’ experience, makes $68,000. In this new contract, that same teacher would earn $71,584. While these numbers vary based on the degree the teacher holds, this is a baseline number.

School Board pleased with agreement

School Board member Micaela Demeter said during Monday night’s meeting that she was happy with the compromise the two sides agreed on.

“I’m glad that the top step teachers get a 4% increase,” Demeter said. “I think that is a good way for us to show and represent just how thankful we are for the work that the top-step teachers, along with all of their colleagues who are still rising through the steps, did to pull our district through the pandemic.”

School Board member Maggie Fogarty said while it was a difficult process to get to this point with a contract in hand, the resolution has made it worth it.

“Where we landed is really good for the whole district,” Fogarty said. “It’s an outcome we can be really proud of, and we know that the future work will be strengthened by a wage study, which will inform any kind of structural adjustments to the schedule.”

Negotiations for 2023-2024 school year start soon

While the resolution for the 2022-2023 school year contract is seen as a successful negotiation, neither team has much time to relax. Negotiations for the next one- to three-year contract are set to start soon.

“We will move forward and see what the wage study advises as we enter negotiations for the following contract,” Mebert said.

Dillingham said that a three-year contract and the reduction of the number of salary steps to 15 will be two top priorities for the union in the next round of negotiations.

“I think everyone's goal would be a three-year contract next time,” Dillingham said. “None of us can have the bandwidth to keep doing this every year. Salaries are always the focus, but we hope to accomplish more of the goals we set out to do in the next round.”

As of last year, the School District had 600 employees, of which 346 are represented by the Dover Teachers’ Union. The board has said that 40% of its teachers are on the higher end of the salary schedule.

What the fact finder had to say

Negotiations between the Dover School Board and the union had been at an impasse since before the previous school year ended, with mediation and fact-finding efforts ongoing since June.

The district called for raises focused largely on newer teachers to better attract teachers to the district. Meanwhile the union fought for raises and salary schedules similar to those promised to the union in 2019, that would largely benefit those in the middle steps on the salary schedule. The union has previously said that the middle steps are where the district has the hardest retention issues, because other schools with fewer steps could offer more based on their experience.

A fact finder evaluated both proposals, and came to the conclusion that each were attractive and flawed in their own ways and a compromise would have to be made on both sides. It made several recommendations, some of which are reflected in this latest salary schedule, and some of which were not financially feasible. The report stated that with a 5.9% increase in Social Security benefits that went into effect earlier this year, it cannot be ignored that teachers are feeling the pinch and raises are needed.

“Upon review of the parties’ respective proposals, it cannot be stated that one side’s position is correct and the other side’s is incorrect,” the fact finder wrote in the report. “The impacts of the global pandemic have presented issues not previously anticipated, most notably the rampant inflation that has occurred for last year and the present year, and the difficulty of hiring teachers.”

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Dover NH teachers, school board agree to contract with these raises