Colleagues, I am pleased to inform you that RTA members voted today to ratify our Tentative Agreement by an overwhelming majority (80.2%).  Among other gains, the new three-year pact includes salary increases of 3.8% each year - benchmarked to the average of the top five highest settlements in Monroe County; full retroactivity to July 1, 2022; a Retention Incentive of $1500 in each of the first two years of our new contract; a 22% increase in our hourly rate; the doubling, and in some instances tripling, of release time for preparing IEPs for Special Education students; compensation for assuming class coverage or added students - including in all PreK, Elementary, and Secondary grades. Importantly, our new contract does not include any of the draconian concessions originally demanded by the District’s prior administration. As we indicated already, we will now resume bargaining to address important issues left unresolved in the latest round of negotiations. We have already agreed to...