CLEVELAND — Members of the Cleveland Teachers Union are getting their first look at the tentative contract agreement between the organization and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.
"Our members, the School Board, the community should be proud of the work that was done at the negotiations table," CTU President Shari Obrenski says.
Just hours after the union's Executive Board voted to recommend approval of the tentative contract agreement Wednesday night, Obrenski shared why coming to an agreement is significant.
"With all of the challenges that we had, that we were able to come up with this agreement and we were able to do it before the end of the year without having to escalate the situation into something that is definitely more stressful, I think is a testament to the hard work and the commitment that both sides have shown," she told 3News.
The deal comes as CMSD is making cuts to address a projected $143 million budget deficit.
"It is a continued balance," CMSD CEO Warren Morgan said. "I want to make sure that even in light of the decisions we have to make as a system, that we continue to think about how we support our staff members, listening to them, and making sure they are heard when we're thinking about fairness and pay."
What's in the tentative agreement?
Although both Obrenski and Morgan don't want to give specific details about the contract before they are made public, 3News has learned the agreement has a paid parental leave provision, provisions on safety and student cellphones, and wage increases for CTU members. Paraprofessionals who assist teachers in the classroom and licensed professional nurses will get an equity increase that is above the general pay raise.
"We think that this is really important to getting them to a place where they're earning a living wage that can support a family," Obrenski said.
Obrenski, who is In her second term as CTU president, says paraprofessionals with the district have a starting salary around $29,000.
"It's very difficult to recruit and retain quality individuals when you aren't paying a living wage," she explained, "so that was a huge priority for us this time around."
Morgan says this is a moment of celebration.
"It has been a year of making some really hard and tough decisions, and it continues to show that with listening, learning, collaboration, resilience, we can accomplish anything on behalf of our scholars," Morgan declared. "It's a huge win for CMSD."
The community will soon learn how the pay wages will impact the expected budget cuts.
"In terms of our budget reality, it is challenging," Morgan admitted. "We've had to make some decisions, and in some cases we made more aggressive cuts to account for our bargaining units, and then we also have more work ahead of us."
CMSD will present its fiscal year 2024-25 budget, as well as an updated five-year forecast to the school board, this coming Tuesday.
CMSD's financial challenges
In February, the district presented its deficit reduction plan to the state, which included adjustments leaders say will save money over the next two years. Some of the cuts include changes to summer learning programs for $31.9 million, cutting funding to after-school programs not put on by the district (so athletics, arts, and other extracurricular programs are not included) for $34.1 million, and cuts to central office staffing to save $5.3 million.
"There will be a lot of difficult decisions to make over the next couple of years," Obrenski said. "We're confident that the priority will remain to preserve the classroom as much as possible."
The one question that remains: Will there be teacher layoffs soon?
"We know that if the district gets to a position where they're facing significant and severe financial challenges and we have to go to the public, that we will work hard with the district and with the public to figure out a fair solution that still protects the classroom and moves our kids forward," Obrenski answered.
According to Obrenski, the district is actually understaffed at the moment.
"We have 195 open teacher positions, we have many dozens of open paraprofessional positions," she said. "We currently have so many open positions that even if they were to close several of those, we still wouldn't get into our educators who are currently serving in the classroom."
The school board voted to approve the agreement on Tuesday, while the 4,500 CTU members will be casting their ballots from then through May 16.