The Cranston City Council Finance Committee unanimously approved contract extensions for Cranston teachers and technical and teacher assistants Monday night in the City Hall Chambers.

The collective bargaining agreement includes a two-year extension for Cranston teachers with a 2 percent raise in each year. Cranston Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Joe Balducci said raises for teachers would cost about $1.7 million in 2017-18, with an additional $1.8 million the following year in 2018-19.

However, Superintendent Jeannine Nota-Masse said the second year of the extension for teachers would be contingent on an agreement on how to rework the high school and middle school schedules. The high school is operating on a schedule implemented as a “stop-gap” in 2006 to “address issues around graduation requirements.”

Nota-Masse said that “at the middle school level, since we have moved the sixth-graders back to the middle school, we need to readjust that schedule to accommodate the additional students and allow them to have access to additional programming interventions.”

Nota-Masse added that the current middle school schedule has made it “difficult” for students to have access to both activities in which they would like to participate and extra assistance for academics. She offered the example of a hypothetical student who may want to take part in band classes and receive help with literacy. The schedule, which would not be adjusted until next year, is not conducive to that right now.

The Cranston Teachers’ Alliance would work next year to make the schedule more “efficient” so that students are more comfortable.

In addition to the two-year extension for teachers, there was a one-year extension to the contracts of teacher assistant/bus aides and technical assistants. Balducci said the cost of those raises would amount to $74,000 for the former and $9,950 for the latter.

Shortly before the Committee took a vote, Councilmen Ken Hopkins and John E. Lanni Jr., took a moment to laud the teachers of Cranston.

“What a great job the teachers do,” Hopkins said. “This isn’t enough for what they do. If you’ve ever walked in their shoes, especially in this day and age, it’s a very difficult job. We’re lucky to have the faculty we have in our schools right now. I would support anything. They teach and educate our kids.”

Lanni concurred, offering that they “do an excellent, excellent job.”

The contracts will go before the full City Council on Monday, Feb. 27, for approval.

In other news, the committee unanimously approved the addition of two judges to the Administration and Personnel/Municipal Court. Council President Michael Farina, who sponsored the legislation, agreed that it would be a “financial wash.”

The head judge, whose salary was $15,000, would see their pay reduced by $7,500. That money would be split in half to pay an additional two judges a salary of $3,750 each. Farina said the impetus for the move was to add “multiple evening sessions.”

Since there was no way to pay housing or traffic violations, for example, online, those who could not make it to court because of work forego coming at all. It was cheaper to not make their appearance than to miss time at work, since night sessions were only every other Thursday.

“People just wouldn’t show up,” Farina said.

The ordinance allows for “more time for the courts to be open,” Farina added.

The committee also received an update on the progress of the discovery trail/historical marker grant from the city’s Director of Constituent Affairs Jeffrey P. Barone. Barone said Cranston would use the Freedom Trail in Boston as a model for its historical waking tour and that signs are already on the way for the first six locations.

The first sign will be planted in the spring in front of the Cranston Historical Society at Sprague Mansion, representing the initial stop on the tour. Barone added that there would be signs added at Phenix Avenue and the Joy Homestead House off Scituate Avenue.

Barone said that $600 to $700 of the grant has been spent on artwork thus far, while $4,000 to $5,000 has gone to the production of six signs. The plan is to apply for future grants so that the project can be completed throughout the city in places such as Pawtuxet Village and Edgewood.