A difference in legal interpretation regarding the implementation of a third party fact finder’s report left nine people without a job in the ConVal school district.

The ConVal School Board and the ConVal Education Administration, the local union, hammered out a one year $1.68 million employee tentative agreement for the 2018-19 school last week, according to a press release sent out by Superintendent Kimberly Saunders.

The contract covers teachers, special service professionals, and paraprofessionals throughout the district, and while many received raises — which ranged from 2 percent to more than 30 percent — in addition to merit pay, others lost their jobs.

Chair of the School Board Myron Steere said the district calculated the $1.68 million figure based on the board’s interpretation of the report. He said the union had interpreted the report differently.

The $1.68 million sum was placed on the ballot based on the board’s interpretation and the number was approved by taxpayers on March 13.  Once voters approved that number, the district couldn’t spend more than that on the contracts. 

Ultimately, the difference in legal interpretation between the two parties regarding how to implement the report was presented to the fact finder, who sided with the union. That meant the $1.68 million sum that voters had already approved wasn’t enough to cover the cost of the union’s interpretation of the report. 

The meant that some ConVal employees voted to approve Article 3 thinking they would get a raise, only to be laid off because of it.

Tim Markley, ConVal’s director of human resources, said he didn’t “want to be specific” about what positions were being cut on Friday. He said both teaching and paraprofessional positions were eliminated. A call on Monday regarding the matter wasn’t returned by deadline that day.

Facebook posts on Monday indicated one of two family and consumer science positions at the Great Brook School in Antrim and South Meadow School in Peterborough had been eliminated. Steere said the same number of classes will be taught by one teacher that will travel between both schools next year.  He said the cut was a direct result  of implementing the factfinder’s report.

Some positions were cut through attrition, or an employee retiring or resigning and no one being hired on to fill the slot, while other employees were given letters notifying them that they wouldn’t be rehired.

Greg Leonard, the ConVal Education Association co-chair, said the parties did work cooperatively to minimize the number of people who were laid off during negotiations after the article had passed.

Leonard said during negotiations, there was an agreement to slice an outstanding performance award pool in half in an attempt to save jobs.

Steere said he was pleased that ConVal employees received a raise in the news release, calling educators “our most valuable resource,” although he expressed some concern over the burden it would place on taxpayers in an interview with the Ledger-Transcript. Increases were about four times more than what educators receive under a more typical contract, which was one of the many reasons why the board voted against the factfinder’s report in the first place.

Steere said the new contract will also put the board in a tough position going into the next budget cycle. He said the contract pushes the district’s baseline budget from about $45 million to about $47 million. Steere said the board has worked diligently for five years to keep the budget from increasing more than one percent. He said some programming might have to be cut going into the next budget cycle, a step the board didn’t want to have to face but may become a reality because of the most recent round of negotiations.

Leonard thanked voters for approving the contract.

He said the tentative contract puts an emphasis on a step schedule, which the district has moved away from in recent years in order to move to a pay structure based, partly, on awarding employees based on their performance. He said the one-year contract helps to correct some inequities in salaries, especially for teachers who have 10 to 15 years experience, a segment he said were fleeing the district in search of higher wages.

“It makes us more competitive,” Leonard said about the tentative contract agreement.

The news release says that a tentative agreement  has been s igned and submitted to the administration. Still, the   board and the union will need to approve the plan. The two parties expect to have a final collective bargaining agreement ready for signature in the next few weeks.

Abby Kessler can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 234  or akessler@ledgertran script.com.