The teachers at John Stark Regional High School will go without a new contract this year after Weare and Henniker residents voted down a teachers contract for the second time in four months.
About 515 people turned out Tuesday to vote on the second contract, which would have lowered salary increases for teachers and also required them to pursue professional development over the course of their careers to obtain additional salary increases. The vote was 121-87 in Henniker and 180-127 in Weare.
John Stark school board Chairman Zach Lawson said the rejection speaks to a shifting climate in the state – not just in the John Stark communities – about how teacher contracts are negotiated and the benefits that are included in the contracts, such as health care.
“The questions we fielded specifically dealt with why couldn’t we step back the health benefits, or only agree to pay for the single payer plan,” Lawson said.
Weare and Henniker voters turned down a three-year contract at the annual meeting in March, but approved a warrant article allowing the district to renegotiate cost items associated with the contract. With the most recent contract, teachers would have received a 2.11 percent step increase each of the next two years, a decrease from the current contract rate of 3.63 percent. Overall, the contract would have cost taxpayers $329,248 over three years, compared to the first rejected contract’s projected cost of $382,393.