The School Committee voted against recouping money from those teachers who were overpaid, determining it would be impractical and possibly detrimental to morale.
“From the association’s standpoint, we’ve very appreciative,’’ Swampscott Education Association president Jon Flanagan said.
“I think that this [vote] shows the respect that the School Committee has for the teachers association and the work we’re doing,’’ he added. “It’s a good-faith example that they want to work with us to make the district better for the students, and obviously our willingness to work with them.’’
Teachers have a choice of receiving underpayments as a lump sum or in installments.
The individual sums erroneously paid to teachers were relatively small, Cronin said, as was the total when placed in the context of a budget of approximately $25 million per year over 8 ½ years.
The changes will all be covered by existing funds, Cronin said.
Following a query by a teacher last fall, Cronin and teachers’ union officials met to determine whether longevity payments were being distributed properly, according to the union contract.
Cronin said that the confusing and contradictory language regarding bumps for longevity had been used in two previous teacher contracts.
In a typical teacher contract, beyond an across-the-board increase, there are additional salary increases for steps and lanes - years in the system and educational level.
After meeting on the issue, the sides agreed to adjusting paychecks in the current year and in the final year of the current contract, 2012-13.
After exploring the possibility of seeking reimbursement from those teachers who were overpaid in previous years, the School Committee opted not to make the effort.
“We wanted to be sure we were being responsible with the town and School Department’s money,’’ said School Committee member Rick Kraft.
“We seriously looked at the tradeoffs and ultimately determined that the long-term impacts of getting the money back could be far greater than what we’d recover. In terms of what would best benefit students, we felt this was best in the long term.’’
Cronin explained that recovering the money would have been time-consuming, complicated, and costly.
By law, the school district is not allowed to deduct payments from previous years from paychecks, and it would have had to seek the money as a reimbursement. Cronin noted that the teachers had already been taxed on the money and had paid a percentage of it into their retirement funds.
“We’d have to go back and find out the net [total], and make the changes with the IRS, the Massachusetts Teachers Retirement Board, and the Massachusetts Department of Revenue,’’ he said.
The district could have sought the money from individuals as a lump sum or in a payment schedule, which would require that someone monitor the payments, another expense.
Flanagan estimated that there are 220 full-time equivalent teachers in the Swampscott School District.
