WE HAVE A TENTATIVE AGREEMENT!

We had over 200 hundred people in attendance tonight. We submitted 383 letters to the School Committee and Dr. Abeyta. AND AFTER TEN MONTHS, FOURTEEN SESSIONS, AND FORTY-TWO HOURS AT THE BARGAINING TABLE, WE GOT THE CONTRACTS SETTLED. See a list of everything we won at the bottom of this email!

It is an absolute honor to be a part of this union and to stand alongside you all fighting for the schools our students deserve. This is a truly historic agreement. Our priorities were living and competitive wages, humane leave policies, and equitable working and learning conditions. Not only did we achieve these priorities, we became so much stronger as a union. We spent thousands of hours together, collectively creating a union that we can all be proud of. THANK YOU.

Read below for more information about what this means and the ratification process.

In solidarity,

CTU Negotiating Team

What does this mean?

Now you, the membership has to ratify these agreements. Ratification means you are agreeing to the proposed contract. Ratification requires 50% + 1 of the voting members. So if 100 people vote, we need 51 yes votes, even though our membership is about 800. We will send you finalized language for care of a family member, parental leave, and sick leave bank. The district has agreed to these in principle, so the content of the agreement cannot change, we are just finalizing the legal wording.

Ratification Timeline

• We will send the finalized proposed language by Friday for members to review prior to voting.
• Please submit any questions to this form by Sunday at noon.
• On Monday, December 16th at 5:30 pm we will have a zoom session to answer questions about the contracts and we will run elections to ratify the contracts. Register for the zoom here!
  • Voting will open at 5:30pm and end at 8:30pm. Electronic ballots will be sent to this email. 
  • The email will come from Election Runner and will say Chelsea Teachers Union 1340. You will only be able to vote on your unit contract and Election Runner will automatically send you the designated ballot for your unit. 
  • The zoom Q&A will start at 5:30, there will be Spanish interpreters available to support members. You don’t have to attend in order to vote, but it will be nice to have a moment of collective celebration!
  • If you are a clerk you will vote on the Unit C contract, paraprofessionals will vote for the Unit B contract and educators will vote for the Unit A contract. E
  • You have to vote yes or no on the entire contract (for example, you can’t vote no on individual proposals you don’t like). 
• Different parts of the contract will go into effect on different dates. This should be laid out in the legal language, but please feel free to submit questions about this to the Q&A!

Retro Pay

• We will get checks for retro pay in probably about a month. The district will let us know when paychecks will start reflecting the new pay scales.
• If you are a Chelsea High School alum, please complete this form!

Everything we won!!!

• Wages
  • Clerks
    • Effective July 1, 2024 3% and a $1,000 differential; steps at 6% distance; add Step 4
    • Effective July 1, 2025 5% and a $1,000 differential; steps at 6% distance; add Step 5
    • Effective July 1, 2026 5%; steps at 6% distance
  • Paras
    • Effective July 1, 2024 3% and a $3,500 differential; steps at 6% distance
    • Effective July 1, 2025 5% and a $2,000 differential; steps at 6% distance
    • Effective July 1, 2026 5% and a $1,500 differential; steps at 6% distance
  • Educators

Effective July 1, 2024 all educators shall receive a 3% salary increase.

Effective July 1, 2025, all educators shall receive a 5% salary increase.

Effective July 1, 2026, all educators shall receive a 5% salary increase.

Year 3
5%	B	MA	MA30	CAGS/PHD
1	$61,812.13	$65,520.86	$69,452.11	$73,619.25
2	$64,920.53	$68,815.75	$72,944.70	$77,321.39
3	$68,132.40	$72,220.34	$76,553.56	$81,146.78
4	$71,571.20	$75,865.47	$80,417.41	$85,242.46
5	$75,128.29	$79,635.99	$84,414.15	$89,479.01
6	$78,880.28	$83,613.09	$88,629.88	$93,947.68
7	$82,849.39	$87,820.36	$93,089.59	$98,674.96
8	$86,969.93	$92,188.14	$97,719.42	$103,582.59
9	$91,318.73	$96,797.86	$102,605.73	$108,762.07
10	$95,885.42	$101,638.54	$107,736.86	$114,201.08
11	$102,047.14	$108,169.98	$114,660.18	$121,539.79

• Guaranteed use of accumulated leave to care for ill family members for all units for up to 60 days
• Parental leave for all units (3 weeks fully paid from ratification onwards, 6 weeks fully paid in years 2 and 3)
• Class size and caseload caps for educators (offered to add compensation as a potential option)
• Adding the COA Data Management Specialist, Speech Language Pathology Assistants, and BCBAs to the union
• Number of professional development days for paras and educators (from 185 days per year to 184)
• Adding Juneteenth to the list of holidays, Snow / Weather days, summer hours, professional development consultation, increased degree stipends, and vacation days for clerks
• Alumni Hiring Incentive for all units
• Increased longevity for all units
• A multilingual stipend for all units
• Paraprofessional Leads
• Paid joint prep time for paras and teachers
• Eliminating inequitable department meetings for some educators (from 10 to 5 required, with admin option to schedule 3 additional paid at the hourly rate)
• Committee to discuss Parent-Educator Conferences for educators
• Hourly rate of pay for educators ($35 year 1, $37 year 2, $38 year 3)
• 10% expansion of detached service leave for CTU President (from 40 to 50%)
• Standardizing language on: Extended Care, Personal and Religious Leave, Commencement Leave, Funeral Leave, Assistance in Assault Cases, Substitute, and Tuition Reimbursement