BARRINGTON — The School Committee and the teachers union have agreed to a new three-year contract requiring most teachers to pay more for their medical insurance and raising pay by 2 to 2.95 percent annually.

The pact, which will not take effect until Sept. 1, also says that both sides will consider renegotiating salary scales if there is a severe cut in state aid.

Such talks would be designed to avoid layoffs or cuts in programs.

“We hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Patrick Sullivan, president of the 290-member teachers union, NEA Barrington. “Getting through these difficult times requires some collaboration with the administration, and that’s something we have always been receptive to.”

School Committee Chairman Patrick A. “Buzz” Guida said the agreement means Barrington teachers will be paying 20 percent of their health insurance premiums. “We believe that is the highest co-share in the state.”

Currently, only new teachers pay 20 percent. Those hired before Sept. 1, 2006, have been paying 15 percent.

With no education funding formula in the state, state law putting an increasingly restrictive lid on the amount of property tax money a community can raise and Rhode Island having the dubious distinction of the worst economy in the nation, “you have a perfect storm,” Sullivan said today (Friday).

Nonetheless, he said, “We felt this was something we could work with over the next three years.”

The union ratified the deal, with some dissent, on Oct. 30.

The School Committee approved the contract yesterday (Thursday) in a 4-1 vote. Member Jim Hasenfus abstained, saying he thought that the decision should be made by the incoming School Committee, which will have two new members. (Doris Eddins did not seek reelection and Deborah Thurston is stepping down.)

Guida said the agreement came after about ten weeks of negotiations. It is not unusual, he said, for Barrington to reach a deal with its teachers well before expiration of the existing pact.

For teachers in the first nine steps of the contract, the pay increase will be 2 percent in September, 2 percent a year later, and 2.5 percent in the final year. Last September, teachers got a 3 percent raise.

Workers in the top step, which represents more than half the teachers, will receive increases of 2.95 percent in each year of the deal. This year they received 3.55 percent.

Guida said the fact that more-experienced teachers will be paying more for their health insurance will chew up a good chunk of their raise.

“It almost brings the raise down to 2 percent,” he said.

The pay increase in Barrington will be in line with other communities, said Guida. “We looked at this in the context of where other districts are.”

The same was true of health insurance. Workers are paying 15 percent in East Greenwich, he said, while North Kingstown is going to 15 percent in two years and Newport will go to that level beginning in 2010. Some communities such as Scituate are staying at 10 percent, he said. Pawtucket teachers pay 5 percent of their health insurance premiums.

gemery@projo.com / 277-7442