By Jennifer Mrozowski
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Revisions to a Cincinnati Public Schools' teachers contract will mean smaller classes for students in grades 4-8, higher salaries for experienced teachers and more art and music classes.

Teachers say it's a good deal that will improve achievement in the 38,800-student district, which suffers from poor test scores and low graduation rates.

Critics say the $81 million, three-year contract doesn't hold teachers accountable and is too costly for the district, which is struggling financially and losing enrollment.

The contract includes a 3.2 percent pay increase for the district's 3,500 teachers, psychologists, counselors and nurses retroactive to Jan. 1, with smaller raises the next two years.

The average teacher salary will increase from around $55,600 this year to $56,100. For a beginning teacher with a bachelor's degree, the pay will change from $32,815 to $33,866. For the most experienced teachers with doctorates, pay will increase this year from $72,045 to $76,581, according to the treasurer's office.

The contract angered the business community because the agreement doesn't pay teachers based on their performance. A business community spokesman said the district reneged on that promise, jeopardizing the committee's support for a $65.5 million tax levy renewal expected in November.

"I don't see how we could support a tax levy at this time," said Craig Maier, co-chairman of the Cincinnati Business Committee's education task force. The committee historically provides funding for the district's tax levy campaigns.

Cincinnati Federation of Teachers members began voting Tuesday and continue today on changes to the contract by a state-appointed fact-finder. The board on Monday voted to accept the fact-finder's recommendations.

The union requested the fact-finder after the school board rejected a tentative agreement in March.

The recommendations include:

• An additional 3 percent raise for some of the most experienced teachers on top of an automatic 2.8 percent increase for those teachers. The cost is estimated at $700,000 the first year or $2.1 million over the three-year contract.

• The hiring of additional teachers to increase access to art and music, counselors, social workers and librarians. The board estimates the cost at $1.6 million over the contract.

• Changing class size limits. The maximum class size in grades K-3 was 18. The new contract allows more students per teacher when a teacher's assistant is in class. The contract also lowered class size in grades 4-8 from 30 to 28.

In October, the board negotiated changes to teachers' health insurance, which meant higher premiums for teachers, ranging from increases of $5 to $35 a month and higher prescription costs.

Mending fences

Majority support by the board and Superintendent Alton Frailey on Monday signaled a start toward repairing relations between teachers and district officials that grew sour after the board rejected the tentative agreement.

Frailey in March said he couldn't support the agreement because it included items the board hadn't approved, such as a multimillion-dollar employee severance incentive package. The fact-finder removed that from the contract.

Frailey also wanted provisions to pay teachers based on teaching ability rather than seniority. In a side agreement during fact-finding, teachers agreed to research other districts' performance pay systems.

Though Frailey said the contract isn't perfect, he supported the fact-finder's recommendations Monday so the district could focus on improving student performance.

Financial burden

Sue Taylor, union president, said repairing teachers' trust after the bitter negotiations would be difficult, but she's encouraged by Monday's vote.

"Mr. Frailey and I have the same goals - to move the district forward and raise student achievement," she said. "With the superintendent's recommendation of the fact-finder's report and the board's ratification, it puts us much closer to the point of being able to work together again to achieve those goals without any distractions."

Some school officials say the impact of the contract isn't clear.

Board member Rick Williams and some administrators say smaller class size will have a devastating impact on the district's $1 billion, 10-year school construction project and require them to build more classrooms. Union officials dispute that.

Williams also criticized the contract's cost and lack of accountability for student learning.

"This is a very big financial burden on the district and no one really understands the extent," he said.

E-mail jmrozowski@enquirer.com