We had a long and productive session with the district this evening. We are so impressed and inspired by the turnout for our silent representatives. WE HAD NEARLY TWO HUNDRED MEMBERS ATTEND AS SILENT REPS, SO MANY WE HAD TO USE THREE OVERFLOW ROOMS TO FIT EVERYONE!!! We’re also incredibly grateful to our extended day ELC members who came straight to negotiations after finishing their teaching day at 5:30 pm!!! So many members stayed all the way until we finished at 8 pm.

YOUR PRESENCE HAD A SERIOUS AND MEANINGFUL IMPACT TONIGHT. RSVP to keep making a difference at our next sessions on December 9th and December 11th!

Tonight opened with us presenting our responses. The district’s lawyer initially stated that they would only be responding on a few language proposals, despite having them since Friday. After we pushed them and said so many members had set aside time tonight so we could meaningfully discuss and move forward, they instead came back with a complete response to every single proposal. Thank you for taking the time to care about your co-workers and your contract. It makes the difference. You can see our proposals and presentation from tonight at the links. Below is management’s full response, again, thanks to you!

• Wages
  • Updated para and clerk wage proposals can be found here in the “District 11/20” tabs.
    • Paras – met us on % increases and came up $2,000 on differentials
    • Clerks – moved up 0.5% in year 2
  • The new educator proposal was 3%, 4.75%, and 5% (up 0.75%).
  • They countered on the educator’s hourly rate with $38 in year 3 (we’ve TA’d $35 and $37 in years 1 and 2)
  • Accepted CTU’s proposed longevity scale. 
  • Accepted Year 2 payment of the multilingual stipend.
• Length of School Day/Year, Number of Meetings
  • Countered with reducing the school calendar from 185 days to 184 days. 
  • Countered with reducing the number of department meetings from 10 to 8 meetings a year.  
  • Rejected our proposal to increase the contractual day (with increased pay) and lunch, but they also rescinded their proposal to increase faculty meetings to every single week.
• Paid Family and Medical Leave
  • The district accepted our language for parental leave of four weeks fully paid by the district, four weeks at 75% pay and 4 weeks at 50% pay. Accrued sick time can be used to supplement for 100% pay. Those with three years of service (paras and clerks) or PTS (educators) can take up to a year off for parental leave, and can use their personal accrued sick time to have it be paid leave. This is very significant movement. However, the district’s proposal is connected to an annual monetary “contribution” from all members that they were comparing to the tax that all people in the private sector pay for PFML. This is the first time this has been on the table, and so we need to see it in writing to better understand it and take it into consideration.
  • 15 more accrued sick days for care of a household member with a life altering illness / injury, not just serious as defined by FMLA / MA PFML. This means you can use up to 30 days of your personal sick time to care for a household member with a life altering illness / injury, 15 with the Superintendent’s approval. If you exhaust your personal leave and are in the sick bank, you can apply to the sick bank for days up to the 30 days.
  • Expanding access to sick bank use to include family members (for up to 30 days only). 
  • This is connected to language about the sick bank that would include joint union and district control and annual donation of a day, in addition to an unenforceable statement about the importance of employee attendance.
• Toileting and Sub Separate Differentials
  • The district continues to reject payment for toileting, but expanded eligibility for the sub separate differential to include the integrated Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms at the ELC. They are fine to say in the contract that training is required for assisting with toileting.
• Class Size and Caseload Caps
  • The district offered adding some possible remedies to their pilot language, including compensation.

We need to keep filling our negotiation sessions and show that we need humane leave policies, living and competitive wages, and equitable working and learning conditions. We are meeting on December 9th and December 11th at 4 pm. Please RSVP as soon as you can commit. CTU has a vision for Chelsea Public Schools where our staff members can not only afford to stay here long term, but have the working conditions that allow our students to thrive.

We are continuing to show that we are interested in settling the contract as soon as possible, so long as the terms are good for our students and our members, and we are heartened by our movement in that direction this evening. THANK YOU to our members for making it possible. Your continued participation is needed to settle this contract quickly and we expect a full house on the 9th and 11th. 

In solidarity,

CTU Negotiating Team