Harvard teachers voted earlier this week to ratify a new one-year contract, bringing the town budget for fiscal 2011 closer to final form. The School Committee also voted to approve the contract, although the approval technically remains “tentative” until the agreement is incorporated into a final document that both parties can review and sign.

The terms of the new contract were not released immediately. Superintendent Thomas Jefferson noted that it includes a 1 percent time/wage adjustment. The contract is also based on a townwide health insurance plan that establishes the same benefits for all town employees.

The School Committee approved the contract 4-0, with Chairman Keith Cheveralls abstaining. Cheveralls is barred from voting on the contract under conflict-of-interest rules, because his wife is a teacher in the Harvard school system. Cheveralls explained that he will seek advice from school counsel Naomi Stromberg as to whether he can legally be a signatory to the final agreement.

After the vote, Cheveralls stated that he wished to acknowledge “the hard work of every single one of my colleagues on the School Committee, the superintendent, the town administrator, the Board of Selectmen, and a whole variety of other folk who really did contribute to what I now know was an incredibly grounded effort to bring some multi-faceted issues, complex issues, to closure in such a timely manner. I’m humbled by the dedication and hard work that many people have put in while I, of course, have been recusing myself on the sidelines because my wife Mary Anne is a teacher in Harvard.”

With the agreement on the teacher’s contract, the school budget for fiscal year 2011 stands at $12,753,491. The amount on which the town will vote in the omnibus budget at the Annual Town Meeting is expected to be $11,094,861. The difference between the two amounts—$1,658,630—is the amount that the schools obtain from other sources, including state aid, school choice funds, and the contract with MassDevelopment to educate the Devens students.