School panel, teachers reach tentative pact

BANGOR – The school committee and the teachers union have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract.

Making the announcement Monday at the beginning of a school committee meeting, Chairman Martha Newman smiled broadly at the dozens of teachers in the audience who in turn broke into applause.

“No thanks to the insurance companies with their skyrocketing rates – or the oil companies,” said Newman, alluding to two of the cost issues that served to complicate the yearlong, often contentious negotiations.

Bangor Education Association chief negotiator Cynthia Fish said after the meeting that the approximately 350 members of the teachers union would be notified about the details of the contract today. She said teachers would vote on ratifying the agreement before the start of vacation on Feb. 20 so that the contract can be presented to the school committee for consideration on Feb. 27.

The administration and the union were able to “make a deal” because both sides came to “understand each other’s position,” Superintendent Robert Ervin said in an interview.

“In the last month, we came to understand each other’s position better than during the previous nine months,” he said.

BEA President Adam Leach said the two sides arrived at a tentative agreement last Friday, then met early Monday evening to “make sure all the i’s were dotted and t’s were crossed.”

Details of the contract will be made public once it is ratified, officials said.