South Kingstown taxpayers and school employees face upcoming contract negotiations shaped by a state law that prevents the district from unilaterally cutting costs even as enrollment has dropped and benefit costs have climbed, meaning any savings will require negotiated agreement rather than imposed change.
A labor attorney hired by the South Kingstown School Committee told members at their summer workshop, held Tuesday, that a 2019 change to Rhode Island law leaves the district with little power to force cost-saving changes on its unions once contracts expire — a legal reality the committee will confront as it heads into negotiations covering its teachers, its custodial and maintenance staff, and its paraprofessionals.
The attorney, introduced by the superintendent as an experienced Rhode Island labor negotiator, walked the committee through the state’s “evergreen” statute, which he compared to a tree that never loses its leaves. Under the law, when a public-sector contract expires without a new agreement, all of its terms — wages, health insurance, staffing language — remain in force indefinitely. Unlike a private employer, the school district cannot declare an impasse and unilaterally impose changes such as a cheaper health plan. “The employer is essentially locked into those existing expired contracts’ terms,” he said, adding that legal challenges from other Rhode Island municipalities have so far failed to overturn the law…