<div>Members of the Chelsea Teachers’ Union spoke in favor of a new contract that provides liveable wages, a cap on class sizes, and paid family leave during last week’s school committee meeting.The union has been negotiating with the district on a new contract since February, and has been without a contract since the end of June.The school committee was scheduled to hold a special meeting in executive session to discuss negotiations on Wednesday, Oct. 16.“Members have gathered here tonight to show support of the Chelsea Teachers’ Union’s (CTU) proposals as we continue to negotiate our contracts,” said Vanesa Mendoza-Mercado.In addition to the testimony in front of the school committee, Mendoza-Mercado said the CTU were presenting a petition with hundreds of signatures in support of the union proposals.“What we are asking for is affordable and necessary to keep good people in the district working with our students and being members of our community,” Mendoza-Mercado said. “About 20 percent of CTU members are residents of Chelsea, including myself, and I work in this district because I love my community. When we are negotiating with leaders who insist that living wages, humane leave, and class size caps aren’t possible in Chelsea, I worry about the beliefs that we hold.”Mendoza-Mercado said the union has laid out a clear plan about what the district and the members can do to improve conditions for educators and students in Chelsea.Several educators spoke about the hardships they have faced trying to start or raise a family without paid family leave, many noting that they have to save sick days up for years at the expense of their own health in order to be paid for their leave after a child is born.“Every year, teachers teach through pesky things like concussions, damaged eyesight, and neck braces because you have made the ability to have a family contingent on our willingness to ignore basic health concerns,” said Brittany Fitzgibbon.Fitzgibbon said that last year, she tried working through what she thought was a cold, only to end up in the emergency room on New Year’s Eve with what was likely a respiratory infection. She said her and her partner, also a Chelsea teacher, had to take a week of sick time to deal with the issues, cutting into the time she was saving for when her child was born.Elias Carver, a history teacher at the high school, talked about the large class sizes he faces this year in his AP US history courses.“I was extremely excited, it was one of the classes I’ve always dreamed of teaching,” Carver said. “I knew that taking the class would be a challenge and a lot of work; we spend a lot of time working on writing, which means grading a lot of writing. When I saw that my two sections of AP US history were 40 students and 38 students, my stomach dropped.”While the large class sizes affect the teachers, Carver said they have a bigger impact on the students, who do not get the kind of attention and focus they need from teachers in challenging classes.“The CTU is fighting to put in language that limits class size … and that is an absolute necessity not just to prevent burnout for the teachers, but to be able to provide good instruction and quality instruction that our students deserve,” said Carver.CTU President Kathryn Anderson said the union has been bargaining in good faith with management since February, with its first round of proposals being presented in March.“Our schools are facing a crisis, turnover and burnout is high and student achievement is less than the students deserve,” said Anderson. “While our staff is dedicated and hardworking, it is clear that our current conditions are getting in the way of our children’s success.”Anderson said the measures being proposed by the CTU are commonsense solutions that will address the crisis in the schools.“At the negotiating table, we have heard that we can’t afford competitive living wages, that we can’t afford reasonable ratios, and that we can’t afford humane leave policies,” said Anderson. “However, the school committee approved single-year raises for the central office pay tier of up to seven percent. We have more than doubled the number of district-wide administrators from 20 to 42, just district-wide, not building-based, and after six months of negotiations, we’re still asking for things like living wages and humane leave.”The school committee has posted several updates on the district website outlining tentative agreements that have been reached as well as what the school committee has offered in response to CTU proposals (including proposals about parental leave and salary/wages).The most recent update was posted on Oct. 1.The Chelsea School Committee announced that it reached tentative agreements in response to CTU proposals on the following:• A step advancement for CPS alumni for all units• Paraprofessional lead stipend will be expanded to all schools• Paid after school prep time for paraprofessionals and supervising educators• Commencement leave added for all units• Clerks granted access to extended day child care slots, as available• Personal days available to paraprofessionals will be increased to three days to match the other units•Language about paid overnight trips clarified for educators• Increased coverage for funeral leave for all units• Compensation for lost time due to assault extended to paraprofessionals• Paid snow days added for clerksAdditionally, the school committee offered the following in response to CTU proposals:• 15 days of additional parental leave for all CTU staff, which can be used in addition to one’s current accrued sick time• An annual multilingual stipend of $1,000 made available for all units• Annual advanced degree stipends for Clerks increased by $300• $1,500 annual stipend for Paraprofessionals working in sub-separate classrooms• Increasing tuition reimbursement cap for Paras and aligning Clerk tuition reimbursement structure to Teachers and Paras• Salary/Wages over three years: 12% increase for All Units plus $3000 market adjustment for Paras and new steps for Clerks“The School Committee and our administrative staff deeply value the work of our exceptional educators and all other staff in our school community,” committee chair Ana Hernandez stated in the October update. “We are pleased that we have thus far been able to reach the tentative agreements outlined above. We remain committed to work constructively towards new contracts for our educators, paraprofessionals and clerks. “We will provide the community with additional updates as we proceed.”</div>

Mountain View, CA

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CTU, School Committee Continue with New Contract Negotiations

Members of the Chelsea Teachers’ Union spoke in favor of a new contract that provides liveable wages, a cap on class sizes, and paid family leave during last week’s school committee meeting. The union has been negotiating with the district on a new contract since February, and has...