Plainfield, a small town in Connecticut’s Quiet Corner, has struggled to attract and retain teachers in recent years due to the higher salaries offered by nearby districts. As more and more employees left with no replacements in sight, the superintendent and Board of Education realized they had to act and reached out to the local union. Working together, Plainfield teachers and the administration were able to make the district more attractive to new teachers while improving salaries and benefits for veterans as well.
“We had been losing a lot of members because pay was lower in Plainfield than in other school systems in our area. We had lots of openings with people leaving mid-year,” says Plainfield Education Association President Janet Piezzo.
[Pictured above, Plainfield Education Association’s new members pose following their new teacher orientation this August.]
The PEA was one year into a three-year contract when the Board of Education asked to reopen their contract to make the district more attractive to new teachers. While local associations are often rightly hesitant to reopen contracts, in this case reopening was beneficial to everyone.
“Previously, Plainfield couldn’t give credit as far as placement on the salary schedule for service in the Peace Corps, military, or with any other school system, and it took new teachers seven years on the salary schedule before they made $60,000,” says CEA UniServ Rep Steve Ozga. “We sat down and had discussions about how we could improve things. Janet wanted to make sure everyone benefited though, not just new hires.”
In addition to raising salaries for new hires and giving the Board more flexibility with hiring new educators on higher steps the PEA secured many wins for existing employees.
“We explained to members that if the Board could hire new teachers more easily it would alleviate pressure on all of us who have had to cover open positions,” Piezzo says. “We also added extra money to our salary schedule, moved our speech-language pathologists, social workers, school counselors, and school psychologists with master’s degrees into the sixth year degree track on the salary schedule, ensured insurance premiums and our deductibles are staying the same for the next two years (they had been scheduled to go up), increased the amount teachers could be reimbursed for courses, and improved FMLA so that people going out on maternity leave can use their sick leave.”
As a new school year gets underway, Piezzo says she is focused on ensuring her rep council understands the changes to the contract and she is supporting building reps so they can uphold the improved contract with members and administration.
“The district was able to hire a lot of people this summer,” she says. “We had very few openings this fall, whereas in past years we had a ton.”
“It was win-win for educators, not only were we able to increase teacher salaries, but we were also able to improve conditions in the contract,’ says Ozga.
