EAST PROVIDENCE — At a brief special session held Tuesday night, April 20, the School Committee gave its approval to a renegotiated three-year contract with the union of the district’s teachers, the East Providence Education Association.

The wording of the contract is retroactive to the start of the current 2020-21 term/fiscal year on November 1, 2020. It will expire on October 31, 2023. The previous agreement between sides, which also was for three years, ended on October 31, 2020.

The committee passed the deal on a 5-0 tally. At-Large member and committee chairman Joel Monteiro said after the body’s vote, “I’m appreciative of the teachers and I’m very happy to put this contract forward.”

Ward 1 member Charlie Tsonos, likewise, expressed his admiration for the instructors as well as the efforts of Superintendent Kathryn Crowley and her central office staff during the renegotiations.

The revised pact next heads to the City Council for its approval. Superintendent  Crowley said the district will not approach the council seeking additional support to fund the deal, adding the administration could afford the proposed salary increases within the confines of its current and near-term budget for the duration of the contract.

“Absolutely not, we do not need additional funds from the city. We have it,” Superintendent Crowley said.

Key to the agreement from the perspective of the instructors, the members of the EPEA gave near unanimous approval of the new pact at a meeting on April 16, is raising of the top level, or “step,” of the teachers’ salary structure from the previous roughly $77,000 annually to $87,000.

The sides stressed the uptick was a “targeted increase,” that not all teachers would be receiving the highest amount. And that it would move East Providence teachers from near the bottom of average salaries among districts in the state to the middle of the pack.

The idea behind the increase for the top-step teachers, according to both sides, was to retain the district’s most highly regarded and best trained instructors, those with master’s degrees and advanced certifications.

Teachers with 10 or more years vested in the system as of the 20-21 term would see their yearly stipend increase immediately. As part of the revised deal, however, those at nine years of tenure would see their salaries rise over the course of the contract, adding so-called “Steps 11 and 12” to reach the top-level figure. The 12-step ladder rather than the usual 10 could remain as part of contracts going forward or could be negotiated out of any deal when this one expires. Entry-level salaries for teachers remain the same as those in the previous contract.

From the district’s view, the administration amended how teachers bid on open positions, removing the so-called “job fair” process. Instead, instructors will now follow the protocols put into place by the General Assembly as part of its principals’ empowerment legislation, providing individual building administrators with more say on who teaches in their schools.

The new deal also removes language for payments by the district to teachers through workers compensation insurance and maintains the always contentious requirement that instructors whose spouses/partners with access to equivalent health insurance enroll under those plans rather than that offered by the district, which provides over $1 million yearly in savings the school department.

“I think it’s a really solid contract for both sides, I really do,” Superintendent Crowley added. “I think each side got some of the important things they wanted.”