After almost a year of negotiations, the South Hadley Education Association and the school committee compromised on a new contract for teachers at the beginning of September. The contract consists of ideas introduced by the teachers union and others by the school committee.

The contracts were voted upon on September 8th, and were then settled. At press time, teachers had not received copies of the contract.  “SHEA has filed an unfair labor practice to encourage the district lawyer to complete and distribute the contracts,” said union president Tina Daponde, an English teacher at the high school.

Teacher salaries were increased by two percent for each year of the contract, which will be valid through August of 2017. Longevity payments took the place of a sick leave buy-back, which enabled teachers to receive some money for unused sick days.

Another detail of the new contract is that teachers will now go through more professional development. “There is more time being allotted to fulfill our professional responsibilities as well as more direct professional development for things we actually need,” Daponde said. Teachers now work three minutes more each day and have professional development time five times a year when students get released at 1 o’clock.

Due to the drop in enrollment in various classes and budget cuts, art teacher Maureen Shea was laid off at end end of last year.

Two science teachers, a history teacher, and a computer science teacher retired at the end of last year, and five teachers were hired to fill their spots.

“When we think about scheduling and which positions to fill due to retirements, it’s all a numbers game and you need to look at the big picture,” said Principal Diana Bonneville. “Student course selections play the largest role in determining if a position is filled or not, or if someone gets transferred or laid off.”

Paula Lonergan was hired as a Spanish teacher, Andy Meeker was hired to work in the guidance department as the Work Based Learning Program coordinator, and Scott Dion, Luke Archambault, and Megan Lee were all hired to work in the special education department. Lora Stasio was brought on board as a new science teacher.

Mastorakis may be reached at [email protected]