Boston's educators could see pay hikes with proposed contract

Boston Globe

21-03-2025

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'This is a historic wage increase for our paraprofessionals, who are our lowest paid members,' said
It's unclear exactly how much the new BTU benefits will cost, as few details have been released by the union. Representatives for the city, BPS, and the School Committee on Friday did not respond to questions about the contract. If ratified by the BTU and approved by the School Committee next month, the new contract will be retroactive to last September.
Martha M. Walz, the interim president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, said details of the proposed contract not only don't reveal the total cost, but also remain murky about how many new positions would be required to meet the new staffing requirements for the inclusion services or how many classes would benefit.
The proposal also doesn't reference any new initiatives for English learners, she said, a group that makes up roughly a third of Boston's 48,000 students.
'The questions are whether this contract is financially sustainable and whether it will lead to better academic performance for students,' Walz said in a statement.
In February, Superintendent Mary Skipper proposed a $1.58 billion budget for the coming year, which is
During Thursday's School Committee meeting, Skipper hailed the tentative deal.
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'We have prioritized inclusive education [and are] making further progress to ensure that we're supporting our students with disabilities and our staff who support them in the classrooms,' Skipper said.
The proposed contract includes provisions in areas that BPS is required to improve upon, like special education services,
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Union and district negotiators were in talks for more than a year on the deal, and negotiations at one point were stuck on issues around teacher and paraprofessional pay, according to the union earlier this year.
Boston's educators demonstrated and held 'informational pickets' — which included marching with signs outside their schools —but never went on strike, unlike many other Massachusetts teachers unions that walked picket lines before reaching new labor agreements with school districts.
The stalemate prompted the BTU to plan a demonstration outside Mayor Michelle Wu's Wednesday night while Wu delivered her State of the City address, but it scrapped those plans the night before her speech when the tentative deal was announced.
The Trump administration's pursuit to dismantle the US Education Department and withhold funding from schools that align with policies the president opposes, such as those that support transgender student rights and immigration, as well as direct criticism of Wu, played a role in getting a tentative deal done this week.
'I think both the political climate and the economic climate did provide a sense of urgency for us to make sure that we could put any differences we may have behind us,' Berg said.
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According to details of the proposed contract released by the union, inclusive pre-K classrooms will be capped at 15 students. Teachers in kindergarten through Grade 6 will have the help of a fellow teacher licensed to work with students in special education if there is a high concentration of students with individualized education programs. And an additional special education teacher will be assigned to any class in Grades 7 to 12 that have more than eight students with IEPs, according to details released by the union.
In addition, other employees, like family liaisons and health paraprofessionals, will see pay increases as high as 12.5 percent over the contract's term, while sign language interpreters could see increases as high as 15 percent.
The agreement also includes quality of life issues for BPS employees, including launching a joint BPS/BTU Climate Change/Climate Justice Curriculum Committee, a program for staff to have free parking at city meters during the workday, and $1,000 per year of tuition reimbursement.
Gregory Maynard, the executive director of the non-profit Boston Policy Institute, raised concerns about the contract's costs as the city faces an uncertain financial future, and called on city and school leaders to be more transparent about the financial details.
'There's just no effort ... to help the public understand what's going on with BPS,' Maynard said.
John Hilliard can be reached at