The Boston School Committee unanimously approved a new contract with the local teachers union, which intends to lift wages for the district’s lowest paid workers and help restructure inclusive education.
“This was a very collaborative process, and as a result of that, we were able to successfully negotiate a contract that lifts up low wage workers, makes progress towards supporting students with disabilities, and identifies other operational efficiencies,” said Megan Costello, senior advisor with the BPS Office of the Superintendent.
The Boston Teachers Union (BTU) and BPS reached a tentative agreement in late March, following the expiration of the union’s previous contract in August and 45 bargaining sessions. The BTU signed off on the agreement last week.
Overall, BPS staff presented to the School Committee on Wednesday night, the new BTU contract for 2024-2027 period costs about $180 million. Most of the cost stems from wage increases, Costello added.
Under the contract, teachers are set to receive a 9-11.5% raise over the three years. But both parties have focused on a 28% raise for ABA specialists and what the union calls the “highest wage increase for paraprofessionals in BTU history,” with classroom paraprofessionals slated to receive a 23-31% pay increase over the course of the contract.
“Rather than just the same flat rate, we took a different approach, offering larger wage increases for our paraprofessionals and ABA specialists,” said Costello, arguing the efforts will help “retain highly qualified staff and also create strong pipelines for the future inclusive education.”
ABA specialists will see pay rise from a starting salary of about $41,000 to $53,000 by the end of the contract, Costello detailed. Though paraprofessionals are divided into different bargaining groups with different pay, on average salaries will move from around $45,000 to over $54,000.
School Committee members and BPS staff also narrowed in on hard-fought changes to inclusive education, including shifting from reliance on single teachers with multiple certifications to adding adding support teams where necessary.
Member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez asked about reports of teachers “stretched thin” and how often teachers with dual certifications would be responsible for multiple roles. Costello noted there could be “appropriate times” for a single teacher to deliver services, but “for the most part” a special education teacher or paraprofessional would support.
“We can and should have duly certified teachers for a variety of reasons, but there needs to be teams of educators depending on student needs,” said Costello. “It’s really hard to say it’s exactly going to look like this, because it really does depend on the students, but it is going to be not just one person responsible for delivering services.”
With the School Committee approval, the contract agreement will now advance to the City Council for a vote and the Mayor.