The School Committee approved a three-year contract with the Warwick Independent School Employees (WISE) union Tuesday night, granting members a 2 percent raise in each of the final two years of the agreement. The contract was approved by a 3-1 vote, with School Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Ahearn dissenting and School Committee Vice Chairman Eugene Nadeau abstaining.

“There are no changes to the current contract, other than a zero percent raise in the first year and a 2 percent raise in Sept. 1, 2016 and Sept. 1, 2017,” said Rosemary Healey, director of human resources and compliance.

Chief Budget Officer Anthony Ferrucci said the impact of agreeing to a 2 percent raise in the second school year (2016-17) would be an increase of $312,900 and a 2 percent raise in the third school year (2017-18) would be an increase of $319,150, for a total increase of $632,050 over the life of the contract.

Ferrucci said with implementation of the 2 percent raise in 2016, pay would increase by $279,372 and fringe benefit costs would increase by $33,525, boosting base salary costs from $13,968,600 to $14,247,972. In 2017, the third and final year, pay would increase by $284,960 and fringe benefit costs would increase by $34,196, boosting base salary costs from $14,247,972 to $14,559,932.

Ahearn explained her vote of non-approval.

“I want to start by saying that I am and was in favor of working with the WISE union to reach an equitable agreement since I know we employ many dedicated individuals that I have come to appreciate during my children’s 17 years in the Warwick public schools,” she said. “I completely support fair pay, and increases for deserving employees. Yet, I am strongly in favor of maximizing the taxpayer’s dollar and funding more academic programs for our students.”

Ahearn said she felt there were many missed opportunities for both parties by not engaging in serious negotiations. Instead, she said, only one meeting was held, in which WISE leadership requested a raise and it was accepted.

“This practice is an example of what needs to change if we expect to make progress for our students and our school system. More will and effort needs to be put forth at every level of the organization, and especially when it comes to discussions around our contract renewals, if we expect anything but status quo results,” Ahearn said. “Conversations about building economies of scale, between the city DPW [Department of Public Works] employees and the WISE employees were non-existent because of this quick agreement.” 

Ahearn said taxpayers were done a disservice in the absence of a resource sharing dialogue with the mayor about the seasonal opportunities between DPW employees and WISE employees.

“The mayor and I can agree that there are many opportunities to leverage employee resources, yet this discussion was not even endorsed,” she said. “I recommended this to School Committee members that we try and have this conversation with the WISE union, in the spirit of shared resource savings; and unfortunately the majority of my peers did not want to explore this type of discussion as an option.”

Ahearn said she agreed a 4 percent raise over three years is not unreasonable by most standards, calling it “quite conservative.”

“Had we taken the time to review resource sharing possibilities, and other terms within the agreement, maybe there would have been more dollars available for more meaningful raises for WISE staff, which could have amounted to a win-win-win for WISE, the city and the schools,” she continued. “I want to be clear this is not about the money; it is about a lack of effort and attention, which has cost the district another three years of missed efficiencies for our schools and taxpayers. I cannot and will not endorse a contract where I feel there was a lack of meaningful dialogue about contract terms.”

Although he approved of the pay raises, Nadeau abstained from the vote.

“For the 60-page contract for WISE, I had changes that I thought were apropos and meaningful but was not successful in getting passed, and so I abstained,” he said. “I thought we should have been looking at other areas [beyond] a salary increase.”

One WISE member from Warwick Veterans Memorial High School spoke during public comment, saying he voted against the contract because the School Committee didn’t allow the union an opportunity to rebut.

“That’s not good bargaining,” he said.

Also speaking during public comment, WISE President Mary Townsend addressed her comments to the School Committee members that ratified the agreement.

“Thank you for supporting us as we support our schools,” she said.