Education
Board of Education Approves 3-Year Teachers Contract Increasing Cost $1.5 Million Each Year
|
Darien’s 484 or so public school teachers would get an average pay increase of almost 12 percent over the course the next three fiscal years under a contract recently approved with no public discussion by the Board of Education. The new contract will increase the town budget by roughly $1.5 million in each of the next three fiscal years, very roughly 1% of the next three town budgets. The teacher’s contract now costs the town roughly $50 million. The teachers have already ratified the contract, which is officially estimated to cost the town $4.7 million more in its final, third year than the town now spends on its current contract, although the official estimate is artificially high. A significant feature of the new contract is a concession by the union to have teachers at the secondary level (the middle school and high school) take on a larger number of classes: They currently teach 4.5 classes at a time.