Strike Averted: Melrose Education Association and School Committee Reach Tentative Agreement After Extensive Negotiations

By: Naomi Breay and Elsie English

After many months of protests and negotiations, the Melrose Education Association and Melrose School Committee, led by Mayor Paul Brodeur, have been able to reach an agreement regarding the teachers’ contract. The new 3-year contract will expire in June 2025 and provides an increase in pay and preparation time. 

But what exactly does this mean for Melrose educators? A teacher contract is a document outlining the teachers’ terms and conditions of employment.It details how many hours teachers are responsible for working, how much they get paid, how much of a pay increase they will receive, and their responsibilities within their position. 

As much of the community was aware, teachers were prepared to strike if their demands were not met. In fact, they had voted to authorize a strike had an agreement not been reached over the weekend. The teachers had voted almost unanimously on this decision, with only one teacher voting not to strike. Ed O’Connell, a member of the Melrose School Committee, said “As for the threatened strike, I felt that was an unfortunate bargaining tactic that would only serve to harm students and their families, and was not conducive, in my opinion, to good-faith bargaining or reaching a contract settlement.” Please note that school strikes are illegal in Massachusetts, and other towns who have used this tactic have faced fines. Before the time came for strike, however, the school committee was able to agree to the teachers’ terms, and together they reached an agreement that satisfied both sides. 

Teachers and school committee members alike are relieved that an agreement has been reached. According to O'Connell, the state-appointed mediator present at the final day of negotiations really made a difference in their productivity. Along with the teachers agreeing to meet in person for negotiations, these two things were a major factor in bringing the proposed contract to fruition. 

For the most part, the terms of the new contract are going to directly affect the teachers more than students. According to Ms. Gardner, a history teacher here at MHS, “A lot of the terms that teachers wanted to get out of the contract were met, like more preparation time and time to prepare material. This in turn will indirectly affect students, so yes, students will also be indirectly affected by the contract.¨ 

The contract also provides for a pay increase many teachers were pushing for. Initially, the school committee offered a 9% increase over three years, but after negotiations, pushed it to 10%, with 3% the first year, and 3.5% the next two years. Gardner explained that she thinks this pay increase is important because Melrose wants to be able to attract qualified teachers and keep them. “We don't want teachers to feel like they have to move to other districts to be paid enough,” she said. When asked if she feels there is more to be done in terms of budgeting and resources, Ms. Gardner shared her thoughts that “Melrose does not have very high per-people funding compared to districts around us, and I feel like that's something that teachers will want pushed for in the future.” However, she states that she and other teachers are satisfied with the contract. “You know, teachers pushed really hard, and the school committee heard what we needed and was able to meet our demands.”

O’Connell shared that the committee had “made progress on several issues but struggled to resolve differences with regard to allocating teacher time during the school day for preparation and planning.” The struggle for meeting the expectations of teachers on planning time was mostly due to state requirements for “time on learning” which set minimum requirements for classroom learning at the elementary and secondary levels. O’Connell also added that it became difficult to carve out time for teacher planning and prep without cutting into the required time on learning, which is why the school committee was having difficulty agreeing to all the terms of the contract. He also noted this is not the first time teachers have had similar problems with the contract, in fact this is the third set of negotiations with the teachers he has been involved with. This includes the last teachers contract, three years ago, which “resulted in significant increases in teacher pay, and the agreement over return to instruction, after Covid hit, which agreement included a one-month delay in return to instruction, largely at the urging of the teachers' union.” 

These negotiations have been taking place since the spring of 2021 and as we reached the end of the school year, the school committee requested that negotiations continue over the summer months. However, the teachers refused to meet with them during those summer months, resulting in a 4 month delay. Eventually, these disputes over the contract were resolved through the teachers' tireless efforts to get a contract that they wanted and the school committee's willingness to work together with the teachers to accommodate their needs. 

Melrose is not the only town to experience similar disputes between educators and the city. Many Massachusetts towns have also conducted negotiations and held strikes regarding the teacher contracts, including Haverhill, Malden, Brookline, and Woburn. All four of these cities have been on strike at least once this school year. Woburn teachers recently went on strike for more than five days despite opposition and extensive fines imposed on the teachers. Their strike was another push for fair contracts and increased pay. 

From teachers to school committee members, the community of Melrose is relieved that negotiations have come to an end. School committee members voted unanimously to approve the terms, and the Melrose Education Association also voted to ratify the contract. As O'Connell put it, “We all want a fair and reasonable contract for the teachers.”