PORTSMOUTH — For the first time in recent memory, teachers receiving raises for their years of experience will relinquish a cost-of living adjustment next fall in a one-year agreement finalized between the National Education Association and the School Committee.

In Rhode Island, teachers contracts usually have 10 steps, one for each year in the first decade of teaching experience, and those still climbing that ladder have been accustomed to receiving both a step raise and a cost-of-living increase.

Next fall, step raises will range between $1,900 and $3,000, except for a jump of $11,188 between the 9th and 10th year, from $57,752 to $68,940.

Those already on the top step — 126 teachers out of a total of 234 — will receive a 3.1-percent cost-of-living increase, raising their salary to $71,077 from $68,940, according to figures released by the School Department.

The one-year pact, effective for the 2008-2009 school year, was finalized by teachers and the School Committee last week. The existing three-year contract expires at the end of the current school year.

At a time of great uncertainty over state aid to education and other fiscal issues, the one-year pact provides a breather through the end of the next school year for both sides to negotiate a long-term contract, Schools Supt. Susan F. Lusi said yesterday.

The teachers union and the School Committee have agreed to resume contract talks in October and November.

The recent salary negotiations were set in motion after the NEA dropped a request for arbitration of its call for extra pay for a longer school day for elementary and middle school teachers — an award which could have cost the School Department $450,000 to $500,000, according to Lusi.

The School Department lengthened the workday for all teachers last fall to 7 hours from 6½ hours in conjunction with new state regulations that require children to be in school 61/2 hours a day.

The union had argued that the existing contract gave the school administration the right to lengthen the workday only for high school teachers.

In exchange for dropping the arbitration, elementary and middle school teachers received two additional personal days during the next school years.

And all the teachers gained release time by being relieved of some mandatory professional development.

The contract represents a 5.26 percent increase in labor costs, or $699,905, according to School Department figures.

Lusi said that avoiding a cost-of-living increase for the eligible teachers — nearly half the union membership — saved $172,137.

gmacris@projo.com