From left, Lincoln Teacher Association President Mary Ann Canning McCominskey, School Committee Chairwoman Mary Anne Roll, Superintendent Georgia Fortunato, and School Committee Vice Chairwoman Elizabeth Robson.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

In a year with a high number of unsettled teacher contracts, Lincoln administrators and educators made it look almost easy.

A month before the start of school, the School Committee and the teachers’ union hashed out a three-year agreement both sides said they could live with and one that taxpayers could afford.

This summer, 13 other communities — including 4 that didn’t settle last year — have failed to do the same. The state’s fiscal crisis, combined with a property tax cap that went into effect last year, is squeezing districts more than ever, even as they struggle to keep pace with health and energy costs and salary increases.

“It’s just a difficult time, but in some cases, it’s proved to be an opportunity to sit down and work things out,” said Larry Purtill, president of the National Education Association Rhode Island. “Lincoln was creative.”

Recognizing that the state would not be increasing its contribution to schools this year because of the state’s $425-million deficit and that Lincoln taxpayers wanted to keep their property tax increases to a minimum, both sides in Lincoln found ways to redistribute money in the school budget.

Teachers gave up sabbaticals and will pay more for their health insurance. In turn, they got higher raises than they would have otherwise.

“Our primary interest was in getting a contract — a contract we could defend and the community could accept,” said Mary Anne Roll, chairwoman of the School Committee. “We analyzed our contract, and we knew where we were spending dollars that we wanted to spend differently. We told the teachers, ‘You have to help us find the money.’ And, to their credit, they did.”

Lincoln has been free of the contract battles that have plagued other communities in recent years. The last teacher strike in the town was in 1991, and management and union relations have remained stable.

Still, negotiations took seven months and were contentious at times.

Four women with deep ties to Lincoln were at the heart of the deal. Roll, school board chairwoman, previously served in parent-led school-improvement groups. Mary Ann Canning McComiskey, president of the Lincoln Teacher Association, has been a teacher in the district for 23 years. Georgia Fortunato, the school superintendent, has spent her entire 27-year career in Lincoln. And Elizabeth “Betty” Robson, vice chairwoman of the School Committee, has served with Roll on the committee for four years.

The women say their willingness to compromise and their common history helped advance the negotiations.

McComiskey, whose union is an affiliate of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, said teachers were realistic about how much money the town could come up with this year. About half the teachers live in town, Fortunato said.

“We went in with the mindset that there were significant fiscal restraints on the district and we educated our members about that,” said McComiskey. “We told them to be mindful of the economic and political climate. You know, my teachers have the same bills as everyone else, so they understand.”

Four of the School Committee’s seven members have served since 2004, and their collective experience helped smooth bumps along the way.

“The experience the committee had was invaluable,” Robson said. “We knew what the issues were before negotiations began because of all our meetings over the years, and we were able to keep tally of the interests of the School Committee as well as the teachers.”

Fortunato, in her second year as superintendent, said the strong relationships among administrators and teachers also helped keep the talks on track.

“There is a lot of familiarity with Mary Anne Roll and Mary Ann McComiskey,” Fortunato said. “We respect each other’s opinion. We want to come to common ground. Everyone agreed we’re here for the students.”

BOTH SIDES recognized that money would have to be reallocated from the school budget if teachers were to receive raises higher than 1 percent to 1.5 percent, the maximum the town could afford after voters had approved an increase of just $517,000 in this year’s school budget at the Financial Town Meeting.

Instead, teachers will receive raises depending on their years of experience. When averaged together, the raises total 2.65 percent this year — $604,000 for the district’s 360 teachers — and 2.9 percent for the second and third years of the contract.

In exchange for the higher raises, the union agreed to give up several costly items.

They accepted an increase in their health-care costs — a contribution of 15 percent (up from 10.5 percent) in insurance premiums and a doubling in emergency visit copays, from $50 to $100 per visit. They also conceded on health-care “buybacks,” which districts pay teachers who forgo health benefits, going from $3,200 to $2,300 a year.

Health-care costs gobble up more than 11 percent of Lincoln’s $48.3-million school budget. The estimated health insurance savings to the district this year will be roughly $230,000.

“What we saved, we put back into our staff,” said Roll, the school board chairwoman. “We weren’t just taking things away from the teachers.”

Teachers also gave up a sabbatical program, which costs the district about $89,000 a year. The program will be eliminated next year. “A lot of teachers liked the sabbatical,” McComiskey said, “but it was an area we could cut that would not directly affect students.”

In addition, elementary school teachers will see their day lengthened by an average of 20 minutes, to comply with state law. At first, the teachers asked for extra pay for the additional time, which they estimated added about two weeks of work over the school year, but the School Committee balked. Instead, a compromise was reached, and the elementary school teachers were given two extra days off: the days before Thanksgiving and Christmas break. Elementary students will get the days off, too, attending school for 180 days a year instead of 182, as middle and high school students do.

Teachers will also expand parent-teacher conferences from one night a year to two, and add afternoon hours so more parents can attend.

Compromise also may help the district save money on substitute teachers. Administrators negotiated a reduction in the number of family sick days teachers receive — from five days a year to two.

Because the five family sick days cannot be accrued, most teachers automatically took them each year, forcing the district to use substitutes, Fortunato said. The district spends about $460,000 a year on substitute teachers.

Teachers agreed to cut three family sick days, but in return got two more regular sick days — from 14 to 16, which they can accrue — and the maximum number of accrued sick days jumped from 184 to 200. Teachers are paid for the accrued days when they retire — about $40 per day.

But there were also areas of disagreement.

The School Committee wanted some contract provisions taken out — such as those concerning the length of the school day and the role of principals — because the board believes those are management rights. But the union was unwilling to relent.

“We wanted a thinner contract, and we didn’t get that,” Roll said. “There is a lot of language that goes back 25 to 30 years and no one even knows where it came from anymore. The public sometimes thinks we are negotiating a three-year contract. We’re not. We’re renegotiating a 30-year contract and that doesn’t happen all at once.”

Marcia Reback, president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers — the parent of the Lincoln union — said she was disappointed the town didn’t allocate more money to schools this year for teacher raises.

“There is a decreasing amount of funding that communities can seek under [the state’s property tax cap],” said Reback, “and by not appropriating the entire amount they can under law, they are decreasing their ability to fund schools in the future.”

Despite these tensions, Lincoln is an example of what a community can accomplish, even when money is scarce, says Purtill, president of NEARI.

“What Lincoln shows is that both sides were willing, in a tough financial environment, to find a way to make sure that they reach an agreement so there is no work stoppage and programs continue and that teachers got what both sides thought was fair,” Purtill said. “Districts have to get creative, because both sides are realizing there is just not a lot of movement to be had on the money.”

With staff reports.Give and Take

In teacher contract talks, dozens of issues may

be on the table. Here’s the anatomy of one in Lincoln.

The issue: The old contract gave teachers

5 family sick days.

The problem: The district was spending about $460,000 a year on substitute teachers, in large part because many teachers automatically took the 5 days.

The compromise: Teachers gave up 3 days in turn for 2 more personal sick days, which are accruable and less likely to be automatically taken, and an increase in the number of accrued days they can cash in when they retire.

jjordan@projo.com