The Cranston School Committee last week approved a new three-year contract agreement with the district’s teachers, as well as new pacts with the bargaining units representing teacher assistants, bus aides and technical assistants.

“It was a very long process, but it’s a very complicated contract,” Ray Votto, chief operating officer for Cranston Public Schools, said Monday. “We finally resolved all our issues, and we’ve come to an agreement … I think both sides are satisfied with the results.”

The agreements were negotiated between members of the school committee, district administration and the Cranston Teachers’ Alliance (CTA) Local 1704 of the American Federation of Teachers. The committee approved all three documents on Sept. 10.

The contract proposals now head to the City Council for review and approval, with an initial discussion likely at the October meeting of the council’s Finance Committee.

Votto said the financial impact of the teachers’ contract, which would be effective as of Sept. 1 of this year and run until Aug. 31, 2017, totals approximately $3.9 million. Its terms call for no salary increase in the first year, followed by 2-percent increases in the second and third years.

Additionally, Votto said health care premiums would be lowered in the first year of the agreement, to $700 for families and $270 for individuals.

In the second year, a health care deductible would be phased in – $250 for individuals, $500 for families – with a maximum of half of that cost to be reimbursed through the district. Those same deductible terms would be in place for the third year of the contract, and the district would review the arrangement heading into the next round of negotiations.

Votto said the three-year pact with teacher assistants and bus aides would have a total fiscal impact of $268,623. The terms of the agreement would eliminate longevity payments and holidays, and roll the costs associated with those items to the hourly rate for employees.

Votto said the school committee had focused during contract talks on phasing out longevity payments across the board. In terms of holidays, he said, several were eliminated by the committee in the creation of this year’s school calendar, and those days will now be treated as paid work days. He noted that teachers have not received paid holidays while other bargaining units have.

Additionally under the agreement, the hourly wage for employees across all 10 salary steps in the teacher assistant and bus aide bargaining unit would increase by $2.09 in the first year, followed by hourly increases of 25 cents and 35 cents in the second and third years, respectively.

Votto said the teacher assistant and bus aide agreement would also raise the health care cost share for employees, which currently stands at 15 percent. It would increase to 18 percent in the first year, and then to 20 percent in the third year.

The final agreement, with the district’s technical assistants, has the same terms as the contract reached with the teacher assistants and bus aides. The total cost, Votto said, would be $16,017 over the three-year term.

The latest contract agreements come following approval of a new three-year pact with the city’s custodians. That deal includes a salary increase of 3 percent in the first year, with re-opener clauses in the second and third years allowing for the possibility of additional raises. The health care cost share for custodians remains at 20 percent.

The contract talks became contentious earlier this year, and tensions publicly boiled over at June’s meeting of the school committee.

The union, which points to severe concessions made by employees during recent years as the district faced difficult fiscal times, at that point had left mediation, and had filed an Unfair Labor Practice claim with the Rhode Island State Labor Relations Board after the committee issued a request for proposals for services provided by the teacher assistant bargaining unit. Members of the committee said that move was made for informational purposes after talks broke down.

The removal of holidays from the calendar had also been a point of contention at the June meeting, during which dozens of CTA members were present and holding “solidarity” signs.