Town Hall

RTM to Vote Monday on Teachers Union Contract — the Biggest Part of the Town’s Next Three Budgets

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Two Representative Town Meeting committees have each voted to recommend that the full RTM, when it meets Monday night, approve the teachers union contract. The proposed three-year Darien teachers union contract will be the single largest expenditure made by the town — not just for the coming fiscal year, but for the two that follow it, as well. Once the RTM vote is taken, that expenditure of tens of millions of dollars a year will be locked in, essentially, unavailable for either the Board of Education or RTM to change for three years. Most of the town’s education spending is on teacher’s salaries, and town education spending is close to 70 percent of the entire town budget. The RTM’s vote will be the final one, putting the contract into effect starting July 1 and ending June 30, 2020. 

Top school administrators and several members of the Board of Education answered questions about the contract on Tuesday at a joint meeting of the RTM’s Education Committee and Finance & Budget Committee.