Thursday, May 8
NORTH ADAMS - Collaboration, parental input and a "solid" plan were a few of the major reasons behind the North Adams Teachers' Union's decision to ratify a contract for an extended day at four of the city's schools.

"We worked a hard three to four months with the administration to make this the best possible plan," Christopher Caproni, union president, said Wednesday morning. "We have about 90 percent of the work done; there are still a few details that need to be worked out."

News of the union's approval of the contract will allow a recent $1.375 million extended-learning-time proposal submitted by the North Adams Public Schools to move forward at the state level. The vote, which was taken Monday night, comes nearly two years after the union refused to open negotiations with the city, an act that ultimately ended the school district's chance to receive any funding at that time. An agreement with the local teacher's union is one of the requirements of the grant.

"The major difference for us is the planning," Caproni said. "The last time a proposal was submitted, we felt that only about 25 percent of the plan was complete. There was a short amount of time from when

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the grant was announced to when planning had to be complete."

In January 2007, Caproni and several other members of the union's negotiating team spoke to the Transcript about their concerns with the original plan. Among the concerns were that the plan was "too generic" with every teacher taking the same lunch period, and that the teachers had "no idea what their day" would look like. They were also concerned about the length of the extended day, which children would be affected by the change, how it would apply to special needs children and what they called a lack of parental input.

"Some parents were very unclear what it meant," one committee member said during the interview. "Some parents think their children would graduate earlier -- as early as the 10th grade. It was hard to get information out in a short period of time."

Caproni said a majority of those concerns have been addressed.

"We were able to take that 25 percent plan, that skeleton, and jump into planning with an idea of where we needed to be," he said. "There was definitely input from parents and teachers this time around. We worked hard on it. We were in the superintendent's office once a week -- teachers and administrators -- working on a plan. It's a good, solid plan this time with only a few minor details that need to be worked out."

He said the union is hoping the state will agree with their assessment of the new proposal when it announces which districts will be considered for funding on May 23.

"We're looking at implementing it in the fall," Caproni said. "We think it's an excellent plan."

The proposal, which expands the length of the school day by about one hour and 15 minutes daily and adds four days to the school year, will be implemented at each of the city's three elementary schools and at the middle school. The contract ratified by the teachers' union gives those teachers involved a 16 percent pay increase, which is commensurate with the additional work hours.

Superintendent James E. Montepare said during Tuesday night's school committee meeting that there will be stiff competition for the limited funding with more and more school districts submitting plans.

There is also a question of how much money the state Legislature will allot for the extended-day initiatives.

The state is already funding expanded-day programs in 18 school districts across the Comm-onwealth. Several other schools in Western Massachusetts, including the Hawlemont Regional School District in Hawley and Charlemont, the Pittsfield Public Schools and the Adams-Cheshire Regional School District have received planning grants to explore the concept.