The state has responded to the School Committee’s request for mediation, indicating both parties need to return to the bargaining table to narrow the scope and number of issues considered for mediation.
According to Belmont Education Association President John Sullivan, both parties received the mediator’s assessment on Monday. The request for mediation, which sought to assist with negotiating a new contract for educators (Unit A), came after a year of collective bargaining.
Requesting Mediation
The request for mediation followed the School Committee’s determination that they had reached an impasse with Unit A of the union—the Belmont Education Association (BEA).
“This marks a full year, and we’ve met numerous times, and the majority of those times the discussion has been around Unit A, educators,” said School Committee Chair Meghan Moriarty. “We have gotten to the point with Unit A where we felt like both parties could use some help from a third party to help us come close and really reach agreement.”
According to Sullivan, the School Committee has so far refused to delve into some of the priority issues for the BEA, including some proposals related to caseload and class size, including a proposal to form a joint committee to make recommendations to district leadership on this topic.
According to data from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on comparable districts identified by the School Committee, Belmont has the second-lowest per-pupil spending at $19,411.45; Belmont also has the lowest teacher-to-student ratio at 1 to 14.4 and the largest class size, with an average of 20.4 students; the relatively low spending on pupils and high class sizes impact the kind of support students are able to receive, said Sullivan.
Previous Coverage
Moriarty said the BEA submitted around 230 proposals to the School Committee, posing a potential challenge for implementation. According to Moriarty, the district is unable to operationalize all of these proposed changes due to the district’s small administrative team. She added that while some of the proposals from the BEA contain issues the district needs to address, some of the language in their proposals includes language not typically found in contracts, and some of the proposals sit more in the purview of the town than the schools.
For the School Committee, a main priority is adding instructional time to the school day. Belmont has the lowest amount of instructional time for students at 17 to 23 minutes less per day, compared to other districts, according to a letter to the community from Moriarty. The parties are negotiating proposals regarding lengthening the instructional day and adding additional time for preparation and collaboration, she said.
Fiscal Assessments
One of the challenges facing negotiations is the parties are divided on the reliability of using various funding sources, such as money saved from staff turnover.
The School Committee is concerned that reliance on this money could lead to program cuts if the funds are not adequately replenished. The union argues the funds saved from staff turnover have historically been consistent at around $1 million every year.
The union is confident that Chapter 70 is also a reliable source of funding.
“Chapter 70 money has not gone down; it’s gone up every year, so it’s not one-time money, and the state continues to provide that support to towns and cities in Massachusetts,” Sullivan said.
Additional Chapter 70 funds come from the Massachusetts “Fair Share” tax, which taxes residents annually an additional 4% on any portion of taxable income that exceeds $1 million. The funds are allocated from the town to the schools every year, and are included in the schools’ budget.
However, the additional Chapter 70 funds come into municipalities late in the budget process and fluctuate every year.
On Oct. 20,Town Meeting members approved spending $225,000 of this year’s additional Chapter 70 funding ($356,000) for an updated elementary literacy curriculum.
A collective bargaining session for Units D, C, and B was held on Wednesday, and next Wednesday, a collective bargaining session for Unit A will be held.
The School Committee has also requested an executive session with the Select Board on Monday night to discuss if the Select Board sees any other paths forward to help the School Committee with negotiations and identifying if there are any additional funding sources that could be used for the schools.