EPTA Seeks Auditor General Review of Teachers’ Contract

EPTA Seeks Auditor General Review of Impact of Teachers’ Contract on School Deficit and Taxpayers before Council Approval of New Pact

The East Providence Taxpayers Association (EPTA) today wrote to Acting Auditor General Dennis Hoyle expressing its concerns that ratification of the newly proposed teachers’ contract by City Council would result in additional unlawful school department deficit spending unless a viable deficit elimination plan approved by the Auditor General is adopted first. The East Providence City Council is set to consider approval of the new teachers’ contract at its meeting Tuesday evening at 7:30 PM at City Hall.

The School Department announced in April that it had an anticipated school budget deficit of $2.5 million in the current fiscal year. State law requires the School Department to develop a corrective action plan to eliminate the deficit and to transmit the plan to the City Council within five days of the discovery of an anticipated budget gap. The plan must also be approved by the Auditor General. The School Department has not yet produced a deficit corrective action plan approved by the Auditor General.

The EPTA letter asked the Auditor General to communicate to the City Council before the close of business Tuesday his views about the advisability of the Council ratifying the teachers’ contract before a corrective action plan for eliminating the current year’s school budget deficit was approved. The letter also asked the Auditor General to communicate to both the City Council and the School Committee his opinion about whether or not the East Providence School Department is currently in compliance with the state laws requiring development and approval of a deficit elimination plan. The EPTA also asked the City Council in a separate letter to defer approval of the contract until a deficit plan was approved.

EPTA spokesperson Bill Murphy said, “We do not believe it is advisable for the City Council to ratify the proposed teachers’ contract until there is a deficit elimination plan in place that has been carefully reviewed and approved by the Auditor General. This is all the more true given that the contract does not include cost-savings proposals like a temporary 3% reduction in pay, and replacement of seven (7) paid sick days with unpaid ones that School Committee legal counsel had previously stated in an April 21st letter to the teachers’ union were required by law to eliminate the budget deficit in the current fiscal year. In addition, the proposed contract contains increases in longevity and base pay as well as sick day buy backs. The agreement also does not include the provision for reopening negotiation of salary and health insurance costs in the last year of the contract that had been included in an earlier April 27th proposal. The School Department has said it is working on plans to eliminate the deficit by achieving savings in other areas, and we hope this will be possible.”

Murphy continued, “The bottom line, though, is that we simply cannot afford the risk of signing a contract that could lead to further deficit spending at a time when the city and its taxpayers can least afford it. We can’t risk a mistake that will lead to more deficit spending that could jeopardize the future financial stability of the city or our ability to borrow at the most competitive interest rates possible. The best insurance against these risks is for the Council to wait to approve the teachers’ contract until the Auditor General has approved a deficit elimination plan for this year that takes the financial impact of the new contract into account.”

Murphy finished his statement by noting, “It is vitally important that this situation be handled carefully in order to ensure the ultimate ratification of the new teachers’ contract without the unlawful accumulation of additional debt. This contract is a watershed accomplishment in that it includes agreement between the School Committee and the teachers’ union on education reforms including a longer school year and school day, common planning time and improved professional development for teachers, and the institution of a performance-based compensation system while at the same time eliminating many of the unreasonable and excessively costly pay and benefits provisions of the old contract. We are confident that careful attention to the deficit spending problem will enable us to win passage of a teachers’ contract that moves our School Department forward while at the same time ensures that we are complying with the laws against deficit spending.”

Press Release: East Providence Taxpayers Association