Negotiations

  • Negotiations Update, 9/26/24

    Chair Joe McLean and the Masconomet Regional School Committee wish to share with the community the following update regarding negotiations with the Masconomet Teachers Association.

    The School Committee has met regularly with the Masconomet Teachers Association (MTA) in an attempt to reach agreement on a successor contract. Our most recent session, on Tuesday, Sept. 16, was very productive. Our vision from the first negotiating session has been to reach a resolution that is mutually beneficial, maintains the high-quality educational services delivered by our teaching staff, and respects the financial constraints of our district budget and our sending communities.

    At the Sept. 16 session, the School Committee made its last, best offer to the MTA. That offer is for a three-year contract, with pay raises of 3 percent in the first year, 3.25 percent in the second year, and 3.5 percent in the third year. These increases also extend to advisor and coaching stipends.  The last offer proposed from the MTA on June 24 contained pay increases of 4.5% per year for four years.

    Additionally, the district is offering eight weeks of paid family/parental leave outside of any contractual, accrued sick leave. We are aware of only two other districts in the state offering teaching staff offering family leave this extensive.

    This offer reflects a $1.9 million added investment in our teaching staff over the next three years.

    In exchange, we are requesting that the district be allowed to implement the state-approved process for staff evaluations. Regular classroom observations are designed to ensure instructional consistency and adoption of current pedagogy.  The current CBA limits the number of times experienced educators can be observed. 

    Our current evaluation system restricts the district’s ability to observe experienced teaching staff during lessons; for our most experienced staff, evaluators may only observe a teacher once in a two-year period. Thus, an evaluator may not have sufficient data to fairly assess a teacher’s performance, which can limit the teacher’s ability to grow and excel.  The MTA’s current proposal is to institute a system of “non-evaluative feedback visits” that may not be used in a teacher’s performance evaluation.

    A fuller explanation of this offer may be found here.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RPPvQxnICscCWRsP5utgfY27nRCDYab6/view?usp=sharing.  

    Our negotiation sessions are held in public in the interest of full transparency. We invite interested community members to the next scheduled session, on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 3:30 p.m in the Masconomet High School Library.  Sessions are also live-streamed at: https://www.masconomet.org/domain/220.  Bargaining session recordings, minutes and documents are located at: https://www.masconomet.org/Page/998

    The School Committee and MTA have met in good faith at the negotiating table. We share the common goal of providing the best possible outcomes for each student. We remain highly optimistic that we will reach an agreement on a successor contract soon.