Wiscasset’s first contract with teachers hikes everyone’s pay two percent for the school year just ended. It also awards a yearly bonus for national board-certified teachers.

The School Committee passed the deal in May; the Wiscasset Teachers Association, June 6.  Since then the details have remained under wraps during the legal and signing steps. The Wiscasset Newspaper has continued to check and, on July 13, received the contract via email from the school department’s central office.

Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot helped sort through it in a series of email responses to questions July 14.

Wilmot said retroactive pay went out to teachers in a lump sum the first pay period after the contract was ratified.  The across-the-board, two percent pay hike for 2015-16 was the only one. For 2013–14, teachers moved up a level on the salary scale based on their degrees and their experience; and the coming year’s salary will be based on degree and experience, Wilmot said.

At the newspaper’s request, Wilmot provided totals for the retroactive pay. The sum for 2014-15 came to $64,026; and for 2015-16, $57,725.

Direct deposit is the pay method for any hires after July 1, 2014, according to the contract. Everyone else gets paid through direct deposit also, unless they opt out, in writing, to the superintendent. In that case, the teacher receives their paycheck at school.

The extra $2,500 for national board certification went to one teacher for the past school year and will go to two in the upcoming school year, Wilmot said. The previous contract — the expired, Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 one that teachers worked under until now — also had the benefit, she said.

Attempts to reach the union’s president, Tricia Bursey, for comment on the new contract were not immediately successful.

The contract runs out at the end of August 2017. The parties have not set a start date on talks for the next one, Wilmot said. Negotiations may get under way this winter, she said.

While the teachers’ pact is public, the one the support staff and the School Committee agreed to still was not. The union passed it March 31; the committee, on April 14. Wilmot said the department’s attorneys have sent it to a support staff representative for review and a signature. “We are awaiting receipt.”