New Haven Academy’s Fana Hickinson: “I have felt both extremely proud and also extremely disrespected by the process.” On the second floor of City Hall on Tuesday. The city’s teachers union warned that it is prepared to go to arbitration — a step that hasn’t been taken in a quarte r century — as contract negotiations with the city and Board of Education stall over educators’ healthcare costs. Union leaders, educators, and supporters made that announcement Tuesday afternoon during a “stewards assembly meeting” and press conference held on the second floor of City Hall. The presser took place roughly a week after more than 100 educators and their allies showed up to a Board of Education to back the union’s request for more affordable health care and better pay. Tuesday’s gathering also occurred the day before Wednesday’s deadline for the teachers union and the school district to reach a tentative agreement before an arbitrator will step in and make a decision. “Dr. Negrón, Mayor Elicker, and the New Haven Board of Education have forced us to declare impasse and prepare for arbitration after close to three months of contract negotiations,” said New Haven Federation of Teachers (NHFT) President Leslie Blatteau. Blatteau said the move means that instead of spending the holiday season resting with family, union members will likely be preparing for arbitration hearings to secure what they describe as necessary proposals like wage increases that meet inflation and a shift to a state health insurance plan. “This is the first time in over 25 years that the New Haven Federation of Teachers will prepare for arbitration,” Blatteau said. “Our members will be in an arbitration hearing to ensure that our working conditions and our students’ learning conditions can actually meet the moment we are in.” In a separate interview with the Independent, Mayor Justin Elicker — who attended Tuesday’s press conference said that he was disappointed by some of the language used by speakers, and emphasized again that city leaders value educators. “We’re not sitting in some dark room trying to scheme on how to give teachers bad health care or pay teachers as little as possible,” Elicker said. “That’s just not who we are.” Elicker said he agrees teachers need higher pay and better health care, but said decisions must be grounded in what the city and school district can afford. He raised concerns that switching teachers to a state health insurance plan — one of the central requests by the union — could increase costs not only for the city but also for other municipal employees, since New Haven is self-insured. Elicker estimated that switching teachers to the state health insurance plan would cost approximately an additional $10 million — about $7 million due to changes in the risk pool for other employees and $3 million related to healthcare rebate costs. That estimated incurred cost is in addition to the one reported by Blatteau at last week’s Board of Education meeting. At that meeting, Blatteau said that the city currently pays $40.8 million for its health insurance plan for teachers, compared to an estimated $41.1 million for the state plan. Elicker said the city was very open to the healthcare switch for educators if it only meant this slight increase, but there are in fact additional costs. In attendance Tuesday to show support for the teachers union were members of AFSCME Locals 884 and 3144, the city nurses union, and the paraprofessional union, as well as Alders Ellen Cupo, Caroline Tanbee Smith, Sarah Miller, Anna Festa, Angel Hubbard, and alder-elect Elias Theodore. The teachers union’s current three-year contract expires on June 30, 2026. Under the arbitration timeline outlined by the union, both sides have five days to submit arbitrator names, with a hearing date expected to be set by Dec. 22. Hearings could take place during the holiday break, with a decision expected by late February. A deal could still be reached before the first arbitration hearing. “If You Kick Teachers, You Kick Students” Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) professor John O’Connor. As has been the case week after week at Board of Education meetings, union leaders at City Hall on Tuesday emphasized concerns about salaries, health insurance costs, and persistent staff shortages, which they say consistently affect educators’ ability to meet students’ needs. Blatteau noted that only 95 of the district’s approximately 1,770 teachers — about 5 percent — have worked in New Haven for 25 years, pointing to high turnover and challenges retaining veteran educators. “We brought real solutions and a clear vision to the negotiating table,” Blatteau said. “And what the Board of Education brought was a commitment to the status quo that is no longer working.” She said the district rejected proposals to lower class sizes, expand support for special education and English language learner students, ensure teachers have a role in decision-making that affects safety and working conditions, and shift educators to the State Partnership Plan for health insurance. Speakers at Tuesday’s event described these demands as inseparable from student outcomes. “Better working conditions for educators and better learning conditions for students — and affordable health insurance — would be a win for all of us,” Blatteau said. She also challenged past statements by Mayor Elicker, who is also a member of the Board of Education, that New Haven is “booming.” “Is the city booming for the students who have to wear coats in their classrooms because the heat is broken?” Blatteau asked. “Is it booming for the teachers who skip therapy appointments and buy supplies for our own classrooms? Is it booming for families who have to seek legal counsel because New Haven Public Schools is failing to meet the requirements of their children’s IEPs?” Wilbur Cross School counselor and union secretary Mia Comulada Breuler said she has watched “valuable” colleagues leave the district, including a STEM educator who recently told her they plan to leave New Haven at the end of this month for a district that offers the state health insurance plan. She questioned the city’s priorities, pointing to investments in bike infrastructure and a proposed Long Wharf Park buildout while Wilbur Cross’s pool has remained out of service for five years. “The city has found money to make a pathway for bicycles in our city, but not a pathway for our students to succeed,” Comulada Breuler said. She also cited overcrowded classrooms, delayed supply orders, and long-standing building maintenance issues. “The idea that our city’s young children and teenagers matter does not hold up when the city is not investing in the work of its frontline workers,” she said. Comulada Breuler urged city and district leaders to reach a contract that includes wage increases and affordable health insurance to avoid arbitration. Paraprofessionals union President Hyclis Williams echoed those concerns, describing educators as mentors, advocates, counselors, and stable figures in students’ lives. In response to the mayor’s argument that the city cannot afford a shift to the state health plan, Williams asked, “Is the city not able to do that because they would lose the kickback they get from Anthem? Or is it because teachers are not valued?” Betsy Ross Arts and Design Academy (BRADA) art teacher Ramzie Highsmith, a 2013 graduate of Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School and a former Betsy Ross student, said watching veteran teachers struggle has shaped his outlook on the profession and its longevity. “Teachers who taught me 20 years ago should be thriving, healthy, saving money and stable,” Highsmith said. “Instead, I’ve seen them barely surviving as salary increases don’t keep up with inflation and the cost of living. Am I supposed to look up to that?” Highsmith said he regularly buys classroom supplies out of pocket while also struggling to pay his electric bill. He also noted he has skipped doctor’s appointments because he cannot afford the copays. “If you give the best construction worker no tools, how can they build a house?” he asked. Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) professor John O’Connor attended Tuesday’s press conference to show support for the city’s teachers union. He called arbitration “a roll of the dice.” He further asked, “Why is the mayor and the Board of Education rolling the dice with the future of students?” “The demands of New Haven teachers are not the problem,” O’Connor said. “The problem is a school system that is understaffed and undermaintained. And if you kick teachers, you kick students.” Ben Scudder, a High School in the Community history teacher and member of the union’s negotiations team, said teachers presented research-backed proposals aimed at retaining educators and improving student learning conditions, only to see them rejected. “It seems like the city and Board of Education administration are content with this reality,” Scudder said. “We, the teachers, are not.” Blatteau concluded the press conference by warning that the city’s current proposal will lead to “hundreds of teachers leaving our district. We are already hearing from members whose resignations are forthcoming.” Fana Hickinson, a New Haven Academy resource educator for over 10 years, noted that this is the first year she’s been an observer for the union contract negotiation process. While observing, she said, “I have felt both extremely proud and also extremely disrespected by the process.” While Hickinson teaches a college and career readiness course to 11th and 12th graders, she noted, “I would love to be able to encourage more young people to join this profession but it’s really, really hard to do that as I struggle and as we look forward to a future where they’re also going to struggle.” For the first time in her tenure as a teacher, Hickinson said she has questioned how sustainable it is, despite increasing in salary steps. Hickinson said she too saw no increase in her annual wage bump this year due to increases for health care costs. “My paycheck is the same. Nothing else in my life is the same, right? My car insurance is not the same. My home insurance is not the same. So that is really frustrating.” In a positive light she noted that the negotiation process has resulted in educators talking more about what they need and “its strengthening our schools and union.”  Mayor, School Board Prez Respond In addition to arguing that switching teachers to the state health insurance plan would be quite a bit more expensive than the union currently estimates, Elicker responded in an interview with the Independent to educators’ claims that the city and school district were ill prepared for negotiations. He said that, while he hasn’t been in the negotiation room, he’s learned from the team that during negotiations several scenarios were often proposed and as a result “we always have to take time to run the numbers before going back to give estimates on whatever the different new scenario is”. When asked whether providing a detailed, line-item budget could have improved negotiations, Elicker said the district’s chief financial officer is working to organize district finances for public understanding and expressed support for releasing a detailed 2025–26 budget “as fast as possible.” He added however that even without a line-item budget, the community knows from state data that New Haven’s per-pupil education funding is under the state average, administrator pay is below the state average, and that the state’s lack of equitable funding for its education cost share formula is the problem. “It’s so unfortunate that we are pointing the fingers at each other when we have a lot of work to undo the historical segregation that has existed in Connecticut for decades and decades and decades,” Elicker said. He concluded that the city and school district are currently working with other groups ahead of the approaching state legislative session to advocate for increased state education funding again. He invited the community and educators to reach out to the governor at any time. A Tuesday statement from school board president OrLando Yarborough stated that, during negotiations, the two parties reached numerous potential tentative agreements on many of the items raised by the union. He stated that “the Union has remained unwilling to consider or even discuss critical Board proposals such as the addition of 15 minutes to the teacher workday for the benefit of the students of New Haven, a proposal for which the Board made clear it was prepared to incur the financial cost.” Yarbrough concluded that the union’s decision to declare an impasse over health insurance costs was unfortunate. Read his full statement below. nhpsreponsenhftDownload The post Amid Contract “Impasse,” Teachers Union Readies For Arbitration appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less