By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — In a vote that was described as “near unanimous,” the Pawtucket Teachers Alliance approved a new three-year contract proposal following a Tuesday afternoon union meeting.

According to Charleen Christy, president of the Pawtucket Teachers Alliance, the  proposed  pact will provide no salary increases for the current fiscal year (which is based on 21 paychecks), and will require health insurance co-pays of 5 percent.
In year two, Christy said, there will be a salary increase of 1.5 percent for the first 11 paychecks of the year, and an additional 1.5 percent increase on the subsequent 10 paychecks, with a required health insurance co-pay of 6 percent. “The way our increases are calculated, this is not a three percent raise,” stated Christy.
In year three of the proposed contract, there is a straight 3 percent increase in salaries and the required health insurance co-pay rises to 9 percent.
The Pawtucket Teachers Alliance has a year remaining on its current contract, which was set to expire in June of 2010. City officials from the mayor on down had been pressuring the teachers union to re-open the contract and re-negotiate the terms in light of the city's budget woes and the $8.5 million school deficit that is being projected.
Under the current contract, the teachers were slated to receive a salary increase of 2 percent on 11 paychecks and then an additional 2 percent on the following 10 paychecks. Christy said this calculation amounts to an actual increase of 2.9 percent for the year
rather than the 4 percent that has repeatedly been reported. “It wasn't going to be 2 percent plus another 2 percent,” Christy said. The existing contract also calls for a 5 percent health insurance co-pay.
The proposed new contract will now go to the Pawtucket School Committee for final approval at the Sept. 15 meeting.
Christy defended the contract, saying that Pawtucket's teachers agreed to help out with the budget deficit by taking a pay freeze for this fiscal year and modest raises in the coming years. “Pawtucket's teachers are at the bottom five percent in the state as far as pay goes. I  think we are 34th out of 35th on the pay scale. We have done that to maintain a lower (health insurance) co-pay,” said Christy. She added that she thinks the union has  “played fair” during the negotiations.
In the meantime, School Committee Chairman David Coughlin has come out publicly to denounce four of his fellow school board members for what he alleges is their intent to push through a new teachers contract “behind taxpayers' backs.”
At a special meeting last Tuesday, the School Committee met in executive session to take an “up or down vote” on a proposed new teachers' contract. In open session, it was announced only that a vote had been taken. However, in conversations with various sources, the Times learned that the proposal had been signed off on by four committee members, with three in opposition. It was not stated which of the seven committee members voted in favor of the contract.
The majority vote allowed the new contract proposal to be brought forward to the Pawtucket Teachers Alliance for ratification.  In the wake of this action, Coughlin sent an e-mail to various city officials and news outlets indicating his displeasure with the four school board members who voted for the proposed contract. He also included a copy of a letter that he said he sent on Saturday, Sept. 5, to state Auditor General Ernest Almonte and Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist asking for an advisory opinion about the new contract, given the financial difficulties at both city and state levels.
Coughlin wrote in his e-mail: “I found it interesting to read that our disingenuous, illustrious 'gang of four,' who think via 'Executive Session Privilege' they can gag the Chairman and educated members of the Committee, ram rod the teachers contract through passage behind the taxpayers' backs, guarantee future school and city deficits, set the city taxpayers and School District up for future Caruolo lawsuits, and set the teachers up for almost guaranteed future layoffs by sneaking this proposed teachers contract through ratification are grabbing all the front page column space they can muster in Saturday's Times.”
Coughlin added, “I've decided it's time to get the Auditor General and Commissioner of Ed. involved before the “Gang of Four” sells us, the School District, Taxpayers and City down the road to perdition.”
 In a letter to state Auditor General Ernest Almonte and Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, Coughlin wrote to request advisory opinions as to “whether it is fiscally, legally and educationally responsible for the Pawtucket School Committee, coming out of FY09 deficit reduction Caruolo Action, contemplating FY10 deficit reduction Caruolo Action, lacking a four year-old court-ordered performance audit, contemplating the filing of an adequacy lawsuit against the State of Rhode Island due to insufficient funding and recognizing the state government's predilection to level fund or reduce state aid to local school districts and municipalities to contemplate entering into a multi-year teachers' contract with no reasonable expectation that funds will be available to meet future year contractual obligations.”
Citing that the contract is scheduled for a final up or down vote by the School Committee on Sept. 15, Coughlin also requested that the two state leaders render their opinions “forthwith as time is of the essence.”
Since a copy of the proposed teachers contract was also reportedly dropped off anonymously at the Mayor's Office last week, several key city officials have seen it, including the mayor, his director of administration, the city's finance director, and at least some members of the city council.
Harvey Goulet, director of administration for Mayor James E. Doyle, told the TIMES that city officials are also concerned about how the city is going to pay for the proposed contract as currently written.