Newtown Legislative Council Approves Teacher Contract

NEWTOWN, CT — The Newtown Legislative Council voted 8-3 on Nov. 6 to accept the teachers three-year contract that runs from the 2020-2021 school year to the 2022-2023 school year. It comes with salary increases and some small changes for healthcare costs. The contract was previously approved by the Board of Education in October.

There is a three percent general wage increase in the first year of the contract and no step increases. The second year has a one percent general wage increase and step increases and the third year has a 1.75 percent increase for the top step only. The total amount of salary increases across all the years is 8.91 percent.

A new teacher with a bachelors starts at $47,511 in the 2019-2020 school year. The highest step level with a 6th year degree has a salary of $95,764. By 2022-2023 new teachers with a bachelors will start at $49,425 and those at the top step with a 6th year degree will learn $101,366.

The Board will offer a high-deductible healthcare plan with a $2,000 individual/$4,000 dependent deductible in 2020-2021 and a $2,250 single and $4,500 dependent deductible in the other two years of the contract. The current contract is a $2,000/$4,000 deductible.

The Board of Education will fund 50 percent of deductible in a health savings account for the first year of the contract and 45 percent for each of the other two years. It is currently 50 percent.

The healthcare plan also offers a one-time wellness incentive of $100 for individual coverage and $200 for family coverage during the length of the contract for going to an annual preventive physical exam. The funds go into the teacher’s HSA account. The current contract has a five percent of the deductible wellness incentive.

Teachers will pay 23 percent of the healthcare premium for health and dental coverage in the first two years of the contract and 23.5 percent in the last year of the contract. Teachers currently pay 22 percent for healthcare coverage and 23 percent of dental coverage.