Schools reopen in Brookline as School Committee and Brookline Educators Union Reach Agreement on Contract
Challenges remain, including the upcoming Town Meeting vote on the budget and a likely need for tax increases
A much hoped for message greeted relieved parents in Brookline today on the Public Schools of Brookline website:
The Brookline School Committee released the following statement:
Statement from the Brookline School Committee - May 17, 2022
Early this morning (Tuesday May 17), the Brookline School Committee and the Brookline Educators Union (BEU) reached agreement on contracts covering 2020 to 2026. The terms acknowledge the needs of students and educators, as well as the financial reality of the town. The key terms of the agreements are:
--A 6% increase in all wages and stipends over the period 9/1/20-8/31/23, followed by 8% over the period 9/1/23-8/30/26, with an additional 1% on 8/31/26. These raises are in addition to the contractual “steps” which provide automatic annual pay increases for most teachers based on years of experience. 63% of our teachers currently receive these step increases, which raise the salaries of these teachers by an average of 3.7% each year in addition to the increases cited above.
--Starting in fall 2023 and for the first time since 2013, “longevity pay” (additional compensation for long-term Brookline teachers who have reached the highest salary step) will be increased as follows:
--------For educators with 11-14 years of service: $1,008-$1,252 additional compensation (previously $964)
--------For educators with 15-19 years of service: $2,016-2,504 additional compensation (previously $1,233)
--------For educators with 20-24 years of service: $3,024-$3,756 additional compensation (previously $2,036)
--------For educators with 25+ years of service: $4,032-$5,008 additional compensation (previously $2,305)
--The Brookline School Committee is committed to maintaining a welcoming environment that supports the retention of educators in underrepresented groups. The agreement:
--------Acknowledges that the Superintendent has authority to grant Professional Teacher Status to educators, including educators of underrepresented groups, as soon as allowed under the law; and
--------Defines a “Working Group on Workforce Diversity and Underrepresented Staff” to “identify strategies and specific action steps to be taken to enhance the District’s ability to attract and retain a diverse workforce.”
--The Brookline School Committee agrees that teachers should have adequate daily prep time, as do the Superintendent and the Principals who oversee scheduling. To this end:
--------Teachers in K-5 will continue to receive 40 prep minutes per day under the previous contract’s guarantees;
--------Teachers in grades 6-8 will receive at least 40 prep minutes per full school day;
--------Teachers in grades 9-12 will have one unassigned block per full school day; and
--------Starting in 2025, most specialist teachers (e.g. art, world language, physical education) will have one unassigned period per day.
We recognize that the process of arriving at these agreements has been a strain. We thank students, caregivers, and the community for their patience and understanding, as we finalized these agreements that will further advance Brookline’s mission of an excellent education for every child.
The Brookline Educators Union posted the following message on its website:
BACK TO SCHOOL!
The Brookline Educators Union and the Brookline School Committee signed a tentative agreement at 4:20 am on May 17.
Educators will return to the buildings later this morning.
The BEU will join members of other unions and allies to celebrate the victory and exercise solidarity in a 3:30pm rally at Brookline Town Hall with other union locals that are fighting for fair contracts!
The contract does not preclude layoffs in any given school year, with the overall funds available for staff compensation depending on the total budget allocated to the Public Schools of Brookline, which is ultimately decided by Town Meeting, Brookline’s legislative body, typically based on a motion from the Advisory Committee that usually includes a budget number for the schools arrived at by the Town-School Partnership.
Layoffs are generally based on seniority, with a “last-hired, first-fired” provision making layoffs at odds with goals of increasing educator diversity, given how the demographics of Brookline educators correlate with seniority.
Controversial though mostly temporary Brookline educator layoffs in 2020 were disproportionately educators of color, as The Washington Post reported.
The new language on diversity hiring avoids a legal commitment to affirmative action, which might have faced legal problems in the federal courts, given the current composition of the Supreme Court of the United States and its likelihood to follow the landmark, though controversial, Bakke v. Regents of California case and subsequent precedents.
Brookline last approved an operating override of Proposition 2 1/2, providing increased tax revenue for the Town’s operating budget, including employee salaries, in 2018:
Voters rejected a “bundled” debt exclusion/tax increase for two new schools in the May 2019 municipal election, while subsequently approving a debt exclusion/tax increase for a single new school in December 2019.
Since then, there have been no tax increase ballot questions put to Brookline voters.
Only the Select Board can put a tax increase question on the ballot, with 3 of 5 Select Board member votes required for an override question to increase the Town’s operating budget, and 4 of 5 Select Board members required for a debt exclusion question, typically to fund school building projects, such as the proposed new Pierce School, for which the Town is seeking partnership with the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which has previously supported three school building projects in Brookline, with an MSBA reimbursement rate of about 40% for the projects’ aggregate budget of more than $150 million, according to the MSBA website.
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