District to Pay Most of Union Chief’s Salary

A new teachers’ union contract that will save Portland, Maine, taxpayers nearly $2 million in salary concessions in the coming year also requires the district to pay 80 percent of the union president’s salary and benefits. The district already pays 20 percent for Kathleen Casasa, a special education teacher who has been released from teaching duties to work as the 600-member union’s president. Under the new contract, taxpayers will pay her $74,952 annually. The new contract has no step increase for the 2011-12 school year for teachers and adds five teaching days to the school calendar.