Takeaways From TTA Contract Negotiations, Session 2

District, union leaders shared their first public proposals for the new TTA and ESP contracts.

*This article has been updated to add TTA Proposal numbers for clarity.

We open our reporting with Session 2 because Session 1 of the negotiations occurred in December and was still confidential. In that session, the School Committee (SC) and the Tewksbury Teachers’ Association (TTA) agreed to make their future negotiations open to the public. See our previous article for the rest of the agreed upon rules. Traditionally, negotiations have been closed door, and neither side was able to discuss what had been agreed on or any points of contention. 

The Teachers and Education Support Professionals (ESPs) will be negotiating together. ESPs are staff who provide instructional support and student supervision.

Representing the SC were Chair Bridget Garabedian and member Rich Russo. From the district administration were Superintendent Brenda Regan, Assistant Superintendent Lori McDermott and Business Manager Dave Libby. The district’s attorney, Rosann DiPietro, helped facilitate the meeting.

The TTA representatives who primarily discussed the TTA’s requests were President Connor Bourgoin, below, center, Co-Vice President Emily Niles, right, and Co-Vice President Emily Noel. Also on hand were Wynn teacher and former TTA president Josh Bilodeau, ESPs Joanne Elwell and Diane Greenwood and MTA representative Ted Lewis, left. Town Manager Richard Montuori was also in attendance.

The format for the negotiations was presentation of proposals for both units, then proposals by the TTA for the ESPs, then proposals by the district for the ESPs. Both sides went into private sessions to discuss the proposals on the table and come back with questions or clarifications. Then the negotiations would restart for the teachers following the same format; the district did not have proposals for the teacher at this meeting. No decisions were made this evening, just proposals and a plan to take up these items again at the next meeting.

The negotiations opened up with common proposals, which are items that affect both teachers and ESPs and that the TTA would like to be identical in both contracts. Bourgoin started by reintroducing items that had been discussed at the last closed door meeting.

TTA Previous Common Proposals

• (Safe Schools Proposal)An end to subcontracting for aides and psychologists, which would make these professionals full district employees and able to join the union.
• (Safe Schools Proposal)Assault protection language in the case of a staff member being assaulted by a student. There was a discussion, prompted by DiPietro, about the timeline to report such incidents as well as around the use of the world “assault” and the phrase “intentional act.” Her concern was if a child’s disability manifests itself in assaultive behaviors that it not be determined to be an intentional assault. Bourgoin clarified that they do mean an action in which a student means to injure a teacher.
• (Family Support Proposal)Parental leave of up to 12 weeks paid that would not have to be taken consecutively and the ability to use up to 180 sick days, if accrued. The 180 days would include the 12 weeks.

TTA New Common Proposals

• (Family Support Proposal)An update of the Bereavement Policy would provide five days, not subtracted from sick or personal leave, in the event of the death of an immediate family member or any member of the immediate household, or in the case of a miscarriage. There would be two days leave for the death of another close relative or friend. Bourgoin pointed out that “family” can be different things to different people, and union members should be afforded the chance to grieve.
• (Family Support Proposal) Addition of half day sick days. Right now, if a teacher comes in for the day and leaves early due to illness or an appointment, they must use a full sick day. The request is to be able to take half a day as a sick day. The reasoning for not doing this has been the difficulty in finding a substitute for half a day.
• (Family Support Proposal)Expanding the sick leave policy to add additional family members an employee may be responsible for and need leave to care for.
• (Family Support Proposal)By June 15 or the last day of school, all unit members will receive a letter including building assignment, role and salary, and will return the letter by June 30. This is current practice, but the TTA would like to formalize it, since there have been times in the past when a member was informed in late August they would be moving buildings, and that doesn’t leave a lot of time to prepare.

Next, Bourgoin passed the discussion of proposals for just the ESPs over to Noel.

TTA Proposals for ESPs

• In more of a housekeeping issue, ESPs get three personal days and must get approval from the principal. They want the contract to reflect that they will submit their requests through the Frontline app used by teachers, which sends requests to the building principal, and will submit any requests 48 hours in advance, except in emergency situations.
• Both teachers and ESPs would like time to collaborate. Teachers often need to get feedback from an ESP, and ESPs need to become familiar with any student goals and accommodations.
• A match to the TTA’s language around tuition reimbursement that more accurately reflects the current cost of education.

District Proposals for ESPs

• Increase ESP days to 184 per school year and change to seven-hour days, which would include a compensation increase. This seven-hour day would align the ESPs with the aides contracted through Delta T, who the TTA are looking to bring back in house.
• Newly hired ESPs, like teachers, would be placed on a step that makes sense based on their experience coming in. There was a little pushback on this issue, since some people could have more longevity in the district but make less than a newer hire. There was a willingness to consider this if there is a later agreement on a living wage.
• Change the number of pay periods available. Currently ESPs can opt to get 21 checks, which means in June they will often be paid for end of the year days they haven’t worked yet. The new wording would give the option of 22 or 26 pay checks. This would not change compensation, just spread it out differently.
• Change anniversary dates for all ESPs for longevity to simplify the process The proposed date for everyone would be June 30, and as long as you work 91 days in that school year, that would count as a full year for longevity.
• More professional development for ESPs, including the two days before schools starts. ESPs would now also attended staff meetings and have an equitable assignment of duties.  

The next session moved on the the TTA’s proposals for teachers. Again, there were no proposals from the district yet.

TTA Proposals for Teachers

• (Proposal 1)Currently there are two evening parent/teacher conferences, and teacher’s aren’t finding them as productive as they could be. They would like to switch to one day of conferences in the middle of the year. Have a half day for students and have two hours of conferences in the afternoon and then have two evening hours the same night.
• (Proposal 2)Change PLC (professional learning community) language to say that PLC facilitators will use professional judgment regarding what content will be on the agenda at each meeting. No outside agency shall determine the agenda of a PLC. Remove the language saying there will be 60 minutes of PLC time a week and change it to one half day a month. From pre-K to fourth grade, there will be one PLC facilitator per grade; for grades 5 to 12, PLC facilitators shall be sorted by subject area. And there should be one special education PLC facilitator for each building from grades 2 to 8, one DLC (developmental learning classroom) PLC facilitator district wide; one SLP facilitator district wide; and one PLC facilitator for each building. The TTA clarified after caucusing that this adds seven facilitators, but three were lost when the North St. and the Trahan schools merged, which means a net gain of four.
• (Proposal 3)A full 45 minute block of prep time for unified art teachers, as right now their prep time is often broken up. Also, add two half days per month for prep time, separate from the PLC half day.
• (Proposal 4)Scratch the lunch and recess duty for all grades. TTA leads said they have found that teachers covering lunches and/or recess has not necessarily proven to have any additional benefits. After caucusing, DiPietro replied that the district firmly believes that having teachers at lunch and recess is beneficial to students.
• (Proposal 5)Change language around applying transfer. The contract currently reads that a request needs to be submitted in writing to the superintendent. However, internal job postings will often direct interested parties to contact someone else on staff. This is a clarification issue on how to handle applying for in-district openings. The TTA would also like to add that transfers shall be granted to all properly licensed applicants and seniority shall decide who receives a transfer in the event of multiple requests. They also want listings to be posted internally for seven days before being posted on School Spring for the general public.
• (Proposal 6)Academic coaches should have flexibility to make it possible to meet with teachers as needed. They should work seven-hour days and not more than 35 hours a week. They will also have extended hours which is equivalent to extra help teachers provide. They shall have a 25-minute lunch period. Coaches shall attend meeting outside of regular hours, and those meetings should be factored into the 35 hour work week. Coaches who provide professional development during the summer shall received $50 an hour, because they are specialized workers.
• (Proposal 7)Speech and Language Pathologists (SLPs) will responsible for planning and implementing speech and language plans for students. They will also provide testing for students with IEPs. They will receive one prep block per day and two additional prep blocks per week for testing and IEP meetings.
• (Proposal 8)Class sizes of 20 or fewer, when possible, for K-4 and 25 or fewer for 5-12.
• (Proposal 9)Time for teachers to connect to discuss the needs of special-ed students, both coming into their classrooms and moving up a grade.
• (Proposal 10)Structure the day so there is a reasonable amount of time to travel between classes. Right now, students miss either the last few minutes or first few minutes of class to accommodate the transition. After caucusing, the district came back and said more thought needs to go into this because of the concern about learning time. Teacher Peter Molloy points out that currently, students are already missing learning time. Russo wondered if accommodating this would require extending the school day. 
• (Proposal 11)In a facilities-related request, the TTA asks that by the 2025-26 school year there will be air-conditioning in all rooms used by teachers and students, along with Wi-Fi internet and cell phone access.
• (Proposal 12)Add the day before December vacation as a half day since many students have plans and often don’t come in for the full day.
• (Proposal 13)The TTA President will have release time to meet with administration, which creates an opportunity to problem solve.

Two points of interest:

K-4 lunch and recess duty was added in the last contract and was implemented at the start of the 2022 school year. It was a big sticking point in the previous negotiation. The TTA is looking to remove this from the contract for all schools, a request the district pushed back on.

In regards to half days, the TTA is proposing three additional half days per month, one for PLC training and two for prep time. That’s in addition to the half day for parent teacher conferences. Assuming three half days for September through May, since June isn’t a full month, that’s an additional 28 half days per year. 

The next two negotiations will be January 23 and February 15.