2011 Connecticut Code
Title 10 Education and Culture
Chapter 166 Teachers and Superintendents
Sec. 10-153d. Meeting between board of education and fiscal authority required. Duty to negotiate. Procedure if legislative body rejects contract.

      Sec. 10-153d. Meeting between board of education and fiscal authority required. Duty to negotiate. Procedure if legislative body rejects contract. (a) Within thirty days prior to the date on which the local or regional board of education is to commence negotiations pursuant to this section, such board of education shall meet and confer with the board of finance in each town or city having a board of finance, with the board of selectmen in each town having no board of finance and otherwise with the authority making appropriations therein. A member of such board of finance, such board of selectmen, or such other authority making appropriations, shall be permitted to be present during negotiations pursuant to this section and shall provide such fiscal information as may be requested by the board of education.

      (b) The local or regional board of education and the organization designated or elected as the exclusive representative for the appropriate unit, through designated officials or their representatives, shall have the duty to negotiate with respect to salaries, hours and other conditions of employment about which either party wishes to negotiate. For purposes of this subsection and sections 10-153a, 10-153b and 10-153e to 10-153g, inclusive, (1) "hours" shall not include the length of the student school year, the scheduling of the student school year, the length of the student school day, the length and number of parent-teacher conferences and the scheduling of the student school day, except for the length and the scheduling of teacher lunch periods and teacher preparation periods and (2) "other conditions of employment" shall not include the establishment or provisions of any retirement incentive plan authorized by section 10-183jj. Such negotiations shall commence not less than two hundred ten days prior to the budget submission date. Any local board of education shall file forthwith a signed copy of any contract with the town clerk and with the Commissioner of Education. Any regional board of education shall file forthwith a signed copy of any such contract with the town clerk in each member town and with the Commissioner of Education. Upon receipt of a signed copy of such contract the clerk of such town shall give public notice of such filing. The terms of such contract shall be binding on the legislative body of the local or regional school district, unless such body rejects such contract at a regular or special meeting called and convened for such purpose within thirty days of the filing of the contract. If a vote on such contract is petitioned for in accordance with the provisions of section 7-7, in order to reject such contract, a minimum number of those persons eligible to vote equal to fifteen per cent of the electors of such local or regional school district shall be required to participate in the voting and a majority of those voting shall be required to reject. Any regional board of education shall call a district meeting to consider such contract within such thirty-day period if the chief executive officer of any member town so requests in writing within fifteen days of the receipt of the signed copy of the contract by the town clerk in such town. The body charged with making annual appropriations in any school district shall appropriate to the board of education whatever funds are required to implement the terms of any contract not rejected pursuant to this section. All organizations seeking to represent members of the teaching profession shall be accorded equal treatment with respect to access to teachers, principals, members of the board of education, records, mail boxes and school facilities and, in the absence of any recognition or certification as the exclusive representative as provided by section 10-153b, participation in discussions with respect to salaries, hours and other conditions of employment.

      (c) If the legislative body rejects the contract pursuant to the provisions of subsection (b) of this section, the parties shall commence the arbitration process, in accordance with the provisions of subsection (c) of section 10-153f, on the fifth day next following the rejection which, for the purposes of this procedure, shall serve as the equivalent of the one hundred thirty-fifth day prior to the budget submission date, provided, if requested by either party, the parties shall mediate the contract dispute prior to the initial arbitration hearing. The parties shall meet with a mediator mutually selected by them, provided such parties shall inform the commissioner of the name of such mediator. If the parties are unable to mutually select a mediator, then the parties shall meet with the commissioner or the commissioner's agent or a mediator designated by said commissioner. Mediators shall be chosen from a panel of mediators selected by the State Board of Education or from outside such panel if mutually agreed by the parties. Such mediators shall receive a per diem fee determined on the basis of the prevailing rate for such services, and the parties shall share equally in the cost of such mediation. In any civil or criminal case, any proceeding preliminary thereto, or in any legislative or administrative proceeding, a mediator shall not disclose any confidential communication made to such mediator in the course of mediation unless the party making such communication waives such privilege. The parties shall provide such information as the commissioner may require. The commissioner may recommend a basis for settlement but such recommendations shall not be binding upon the parties.

      (February, 1965, P.A. 298, S. 3; 1967, P.A. 752, S. 3; 1969, P.A. 811, S. 3; P.A. 73-391; P.A. 76-403, S. 4, 11; P.A. 77-614, S. 302, 610; P.A. 78-84; 78-218, S. 82; P.A. 83-72, S. 3, 9; P.A. 84-225; P.A. 87-250, S. 1, 11; P.A. 89-233, S. 2, 3; P.A. 90-230, S. 79, 101; P.A. 92-84, S. 4, 7; 92-170, S. 21, 26; P.A. 96-244, S. 14, 63.)

      History: 1967 act substituted "town" for "local" boards of education and included provision for equal access to mailboxes and school facilities; 1969 act added detailed provisions re adoption and implementation of contracts; P.A. 73-391 required town clerk to give public notice of filing of contract; P.A. 76-403 inserted Subsec. (a) re role of municipal appropriation-making authority in negotiation process, made former provisions Subsec. (b) and included in Subsec. (b) requirement that negotiations commence at least 180 days before budget submission date and requirement that copies of contracts be filed with secretary of state board as well as with town clerk(s) and modified provision re equal access and right to participate in discussion so that all have right to equal access, and discussion participation right applies only where no exclusive representative has been designated, whereas previously equal access and discussion participation rights were allowed to all only when no exclusive representative was designated, deleting details of what is involved in duty to negotiate and prohibition of interference with employees by board of education or its representatives, agents etc.; P.A. 77-614 substituted commissioner of education for secretary of the state board of education, effective January 1, 1979; P.A. 78-84 amended Subsec. (b) re required vote for rejection in petitioned vote on contract; P.A. 78-218 substituted "local" for "town" board of education and made technical corrections; P.A. 83-72 added Subsec. (c) concerning procedure to be followed if the legislative body rejects contract negotiated by board of education and exclusive bargaining representative; P.A. 84-225 changed minimum voter turnout from 15% of those eligible to vote to 15% of electors; P.A. 87-250 amended Subsec. (b) to provide that the parties have the duty to negotiate with respect to hours, and defined "hours"; P.A. 89-233 in Subsec. (b) added Subdiv. (1) designation and new Subdiv. (2) re establishment or provisions of retirement incentive plans as not included in "other conditions of employment"; P.A. 90-230 made technical change in Subsec. (b); P.A. 92-84 amended Subsec. (b) to require negotiations to commence not less than 240 days, rather than 180 days, prior to the budget submission date; P.A. 92-170 amended Subsec. (b) to change 240 days to 210 days and amended Subsec. (c) to change the eighty-fifth day to the one hundred thirty-fifth day, effective May 26, 1992, and applicable to arbitration proceedings commencing on or after that date; P.A. 96-244 made a technical change in Subsec. (b), deleting reference to Secs. 10-257b to 10-257e, inclusive, repealed elsewhere in the act, effective July 1, 1996.

      See Sec. 10-153k re applicability of this section to incorporated or endowed high schools or academies.

      Good faith negotiation mandatory. 162 C. 577. Communication by school board with teachers during negotiations, permissible. Id., 578. Collective bargaining is a constitutional right. 164 C. 348. Cited. Id., 426. Mandamus action to obtain interpretation of collective contract and payment of sums to individual teachers precluded by existence of adequate remedies at law. 167 C. 513. Cited. 174 C. 189. Nothing in statute which, in absence of express provision in contract, would guarantee teacher job security; board has discretion under section 10-151(b)(5) to eliminate positions and terminate teachers' contracts in order to implement a reduced budget. Id., 522. Sections 10-153a-10-153j include coverage of teachers employed in summer school programs. 177 C. 68. Cited. 184 C. 116. Cited. 186 C. 725. Cited. 190 C. 235. Cited. 200 C. 376. Teacher negotiation act cited. 201 C. 685; 205 C. 116; 206 C. 113. Cited. Id. Cited. 216 C. 253. Teachers negotiation act (TNA) cited. 217 C. 110. Teacher Negotiation Act (TNA) Sec. 10-153a et seq. cited. 234 C. 704; 239 C. 32.

      Cited. 5 CA 253. Teacher negotiations act cited. Id. Connecticut teacher negotiation act, Secs. 10-153a-10-153n cited. 23 CA 727. Teacher Negotiation Act (TNA) cited. 35 CA 111.

      Cited. 27 CS 298. Equal treatment of all organizations is not permitted once defendant was certified as exclusive representative of New Haven board of education employees pursuant to section 10-153b. Id., 422. Held, prior to 1969 amendment final decision as to teachers' salaries rested with ultimate budgetary control of board of finance and board of aldermen. 28 CS 265. Obligation to negotiate in good faith, when. 30 CS 63. Cited. 38 CS 80.

      Subsec. (b):

      Cited. 202 C. 492.

      Subsec. (c):

      Cited. 202 C. 492.