Boston Public Schools, teachers union give negotiation updates as contract expiration looms
With the Boston Teachers Union contract set to expire at the end of summer, both teachers and district officials are opening up about their drawn out negotiations — showing paraprofessional wages, moving the start of school before Labor Day and other high-priority issues are still up in the air.
“Our contract is expiring at the end of August, and to set up our students, educators for success this fall, we need an agreement reflecting our priorities now,” outgoing BTU President Jessica Tang said in an address to the Boston School Committee.
Both sides of the negotiations have been meeting weekly since February, district officials said, with a goal to have a contract by the end of June. But major issues remain uncertain.
BTU members gathered in a rally outside of Wednesday’s School Committee meeting at the Bruce Bolling Building, pushing district officials and school committee members to move on key issues as Superintendent Mary Skipper gave an update on the negotiations inside.
District officials said they are also looking to pushing the start of the school year for teachers before Labor day, upending a decades-long precedent. Teachers in Boston have had a stipulation in their contract that they returned to work after Labor Day since the 1997-98 school year.
Boston is one of the only districts in Massachusetts to have teachers start after Labor Day, with a later start date than surrounding districts in Newton, Brookline and Cambridge.
District officials argued the later start date gives the schools less flexibility — blocking proposals like adding a professional development day on election day — and pushes schools’ end date into the hotter parts of June. Students would still start on the Tuesday after the holiday.
Teachers and district officials also emphasized prioritizing raises for lower-paid workers, paraprofessionals and ABA specialists. Those average salaries are around $44,000 for paraprofessionals, about $57,000 for ABA specialists, and around $111,000 for teachers, district officials said.
Under the districts proposal, paraprofessionals would receive a raise of up to 20% and ABA specialists would receive up to a 28% raise. The employees may receive lower raises depending on their current step within the district, but the district argued this would make Boston paraprofessionals the highest paid in the state.
“Teachers will always be compensated at higher rates, but we all agree that our paras and ABA specialists play critical roles supporting some of our highest-needs students, and especially as we transition to a fully inclusive district, their compensation should reflect that value,” said Skipper.
The BTU is fighting for a significantly higher raise of $4 an hour every year of the contract. Incoming BTU President and current Vice President Erik Berg called the district’s proposal “insufficient when you consider the high cost of living in Boston.”
BTU negotiators are also pushing for an end to having teachers hold multiple licenses rather than have multiple educators and aides in a classroom. District officials said this is not feasible across the board with the different needs of different classrooms.
