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Boston Teachers Union Offers Contract Concessions

The Boston Teachers Union has offered to make concessions to try and break a two-year stalemate in its contract talks with the city's public school department.

Union President Richard Stutman says his members will drop demands for a pay raise in the first year of the new contract if the school district adopts the state's protocol for teacher evaluations.

But assistant superintendent Ross Wilson says Boston Public School's feels the state's guidelines for handling under-performing teachers are too lenient.

"They want to protect teachers who are unsatisfactory and, in fact, want to give them a year to improve," Wilson said. "We believe a year, that no child should be in a classroom with an ineffective teacher for a year. It is way too long"

Stutman said that in return for concessions, the union proposed that the city hire more nurses and social workers for schools in need, and reduce some class sizes.

The school department says it will comment further once it has fully reviewed the union's proposal.

This article was originally published on August 30, 2012.

This program aired on August 30, 2012. The audio for this program is not available.

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