By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — Local teachers have agreed to a modification of their labor contract that will assist the school department in addressing a looming deficit.

Members of the Woonsocket Teachers Guild reviewed the proposal during a membership meeting at Woonsocket High School Tuesday evening, at which they approved the contract changes by an overwhelming majority.
Those changes involve a short-term deferral of pay hikes slated for implementation in the months ahead. They also include what amounts to a two-year pay freeze in which teachers will work under the terms of the agreement that expires next year.
With other concessions, the school district expects to save more than $800,000 in the current fiscal year.
The teachers opened talks on the last year of their three-year accord after Schools Superintendent Robert J. Gerardi Jr. reported that the district faced a combined $2.5 million deficit for fiscal 2008 and 2009.
Gerardi has been working with district administrators, the Guild and city officials on ways to resolve that deficit short of a so-called Caruolo bill lawsuit.
The superintendent was able to resolve the first part of the deficit last month with budget savings he has since presented to state Auditor General Ernest A. Almonte. Those savings amounted to $400,000, applying to the already closed 2007-2008 budget.
That step gave the district another month to work out the remaining $2.1 million in red ink in the current budget.
While declining to give specific details on the contract modification pending School Committee action, Gerardi credited local teachers Tuesday with taking a big step in helping the district resolve its budget crunch.
The union agreement will extend the teacher contract for two years. It provides deferments and concessions on compensation and other contract provisions aimed at assisting the district with its “structural deficit” in future years, the superintendent said.
“I think both sides negotiated a fair contract in good faith and I think it was nice that we were able to do it in a timely fashion,” he added.
The school department has been operating on a shoestring for a number of years -- but now, in light of the state’s cap on new revenues from property taxes, the system faces greater difficulty taking on escalating costs.
The proposal presented to the Guild’s teachers and paraprofessionals Tuesday would resolve a portion of the problem, leaving the next step up to Mayor Susan D. Menard and the City Council, Gerardi said.
The council was slated to consider the school department’s budget woes at a special meeting scheduled for Monday night at Harris Hall.
Gerardi praised the Guild for working with the school department on the first step toward a solution.
“It is fair to both sides, but it will be a major financial concession on the Guild’s part that acknowledges the unprecedented difficult times we are in,” Gerardi said. “They as well as us would have peace of mind going forward and that would be a major factor for both (parties).”
That kind of mutuality may not be forthcoming elsewhere, Gerardi said: As many as a dozen other Rhode Island school districts are also facing serious budget crunches. Some of those districts may be forced to pursue legal action for want of other options, he said.
“We were able to resolve our problem within the community,” Gerardi said, crediting the School Committee, the Guild, the City Council and Mayor Menard for their efforts in this regard.
Teachers receive a 4 percent raise in 2008. Under the agreement, they will defer half of that increase until the contract expires, in September 2009. The deferred salary hike will be paid to the teachers in five years.
An additional 1.53 percent raise owed the teachers at the end of the contract year will also be deferred, in this case for two years. At that point, teachers will be working under the terms of the expired agreement for another two years: They will receive no extra salary other than step increases until September 2011 at the earliest.
School Committee Chairman Marc A. Dubois said he was “very happy” to learn Tuesday that the teachers had agreed to the contract changes.
“I anticipate that the committee is going to vote for the new contract as well,” Dubois said.  The changes will give the committee “a lot of breathing room” in addressing the budget problems, he said.
“The teachers understood there would be layoffs and there would be programs that would have to be cut and they made a sacrifice for the children,” he said. “They acted in the best interest of the district.”