The Brookline Educators Union and the Brookline School Committee signed a tentative agreement at 4:20 am on May 17.
Educators will return to the buildings later this morning.
The BEU will join members of other unions and allies to celebrate the victory and exercise solidarity in a 3:30pm rally at Brookline Town Hall with other union locals that are fighting for fair contracts!
Following over eight and a half hours of bargaining through the night, the Brookline School Committee failed to address the issues necessary to reach a contract agreement with the Brookline Educators Union, forcing educators to strike beginning Monday.
Throughout bargaining Saturday night into early Sunday morning, the Brookline School Committee refused educators’ need for:
The School Committee also would not present any proposals on the record. In addition, the BEU has agreed to a financial package that acknowledges the town’s fiscal mismanagement while standing firm that educators will not allow their wages to further erode.
The BEU has greatly pared down its list of original proposals to bare essentials. The BEU has made financial proposals that give the town tremendous flexibility to plan and prepare. The BEU has asked the superintendent to go beyond existing practices and consider using existing laws and policies to attract and retain educators of color and to commit to creating a report on the district’s workforce in regards to racial diversity and inclusion.
The School Committee is hiding behind a questionable interpretation of the Open Meeting Law to avoid bargaining that could prevent a strike.
Brookline educators can no longer tolerate the School Committee’s dismissive attitude toward educators or its willingness to dismantle the quality of our schools.
We remain open to negotiating with the School Committee throughout Sunday and beyond, to resolve a fair contract that preserves the working and learning conditions that our students and educators deserve.
The members of the Brookline Educators Union overwhelmingly voted on Thursday evening to authorize a strike to begin Monday, May 16, should the Brookline School Committee and the BEU bargaining team fail to reach an agreement this weekend. The BEU and its supporters will be holding a rally at 10 a.m. Saturday at Brookline Town Hall. The BEU issued the following statement following the vote:
Brookline educators have been working for nearly three years without a contract that addresses fair and reasonable compensation as well as working conditions that meet the realities of a modern, comprehensive education. We have been patient. We have been bargaining in good faith. The Brookline Educators Union has never walked away from the bargaining table, contrary to what the School Committee claims.
Educators are simply fed up with the Brookline School Committee’s approach to bargaining – or rather its active avoidance of serious bargaining.
The BEU is adamant that agreements on the time that educators must prepare for their work with students, the time that they have to collaborate with colleagues and the ability for the district to attract and retain educators of color are not only legal subjects of bargaining but also of immense importance to the quality of education provided to the students in Brookline. The fact that the School Committee deems these concerns unworthy of discussion demonstrates a disheartening disregard for educators; it is also alarming evidence of the extent to which the committee is willing to erode the quality of education provided by Public Schools of Brookline.
Assertions by the School Committee and others about lower student enrollment are distractions. The needs of our students are greater than ever before, and the expectations of public schools to support the emotional and social as well as the academic needs of students have never been higher.
The inexcusable delays in settling contracts and the complete unwillingness to even talk about issues that have such an impact on students and the quality of education that we provide them have brought us to a point where Brookline educators must take bold action. We will no longer stand for the disrespect displayed in the approach to bargaining nor stand by while the School Committee persists in gutting a school system that many have considered to be not only among the best in the state but the best in the country. That quality is a product of the work done by the teachers, related service providers, aides, librarians, counselors, coaches, and staff working directly and daily with our students. We will always fight for what our students need and deserve.
The BEU is pleased that the School Committee is finally countering our proposals – after months and months of showing no willingness to move and stalling negotiations at every turn. Contrary to what the School Committee has stated, we did not walk away from the table on May 9 and we made a counter proposal prior to their last proposal of the evening (which was an increase from their prior offer of ½ % more over 6 years). We have just sent the School Committee our latest counter proposal. We hope that the School Committee will work with us intensively in the next 2 days to reach a tentative agreement that can be signed by Thursday at 5 pm so the BEU can hold a ratification vote at our scheduled 7pm General Meeting.
Here’s what the BEU has proposed today (May 10) as a counter to the School Committee’s salary offer:
— 6% over three years, plus a 1% increase to start the following year for all money items
— 8% over the following three years, plus a 1% increase to start the following year for all money items.
We feel this is quite fair, as it meets the School Committee almost where they were, and by putting money on the end of the contract it gives them time to find the money to fund their contractual obligations. Our proposal also includes stipends and longevity. Longevity payments allow the 37% of educators who only get a cost of living increase to attempt to keep up with rising costs, showing that Brookline values our most experienced educators.
We insist on keeping working conditions proposals and racial justice provisions in our proposal, as they speak to the crushing workload and need for collaboration time that many of our members face and the importance of retaining our educators of color. However, despite many concessions and compromises that the BEU offered on these provisions over the past two years (including this week), the School Committee has steadfastly refused to offer any counter proposals about working conditions – directly impacting the conditions for students in the classroom!
It is important to clarify a few points regarding negotiations between the Brookline Educators Union and the Brookline School Committee.
The school committee’s message sent last night did not tell the whole story. The BEU did not “walk out” on mediation last night, and is taking the last school committee proposal under advisement. Furthermore, the BEU has in fact made counter offers on the economic proposals, but the School Committee has refused to address our proposals on working conditions and racial justice. We have made proposals regarding prep and planning time and proposals aimed at attracting and retaining educators of color.
These proposals are based on the professional judgment of educators that will benefit our students.
Yet to the school committee, these proposals are not even worth talking about.
The committee also is trying to sell the old trope that educators receive annual “step raises.” Steps are not raises; steps represent the base pay for educators stretched out across several years. Compared to other professions, educators agree to wait several years before achieving maximum potential earnings. They do this to help the municipalities that they work for. Raises are the actual increases in pay to address the rising cost of living.
As it stands now, the movement we saw last night is not concrete and the School Committee can withdraw its offers. The BEU is asking the School Committee to sign a written agreement by 5 p.m. Thursday.
The School Committee has time to make serious, concrete offers that address our concerns. The BEU bargaining team is ready to negotiate. We are ready to settle if the committee speaks to the two non-monetary issues that are crucial to the quality of education that we provide our students. We are also ready to take further action if the School Committee continues to ignore its obligation to bargain over our working conditions which are our students’ learning conditions.
Thank you for your solidarity and for the support that you give to our students every day.
On March 25, 2022, the Brookline Educators Union (BEU) submitted an on-the-record proposal to the Brookline School Committee (BSC) in lieu of a mediation session that had been canceled that day. The concept behind the proposal was to create more stability in our schools by settling the current contract for Units A and B (9/1/2020-8/31/2023) AND the successor contract (9/01/2023-8/31/2026) for Units A, B and Para at the same time. In addition to the value of the substance of the proposals, the BEU sees many benefits for both sides to enter into the non-traditional agreement between the BEU and the Public Schools of Brookline. However, on April 8, 2022, the School Committee rejected the proposal outright. In an all to familiar approach, they showed no interest in exploring the idea with us with an eye toward working creatively with us.
The BEU and the BSC have been engaged in collective bargaining for the better part of the last four years. For three years in a row, teachers have started school with an expired contract. It is past time to introduce more stability than this into the school system.
TIMELINE — THE CONTRACTS ARE EXPIRED AND DO NOT MEET CURRENT NEEDS
EXCELLENT SCHOOLS WITH FAIR CONTRACTS ARE FOUNDATIONS OF THE TOWN’S FISCAL HEALTH
As the sides prepared for mediation, the BEU formed a data team that looked closely at the town’s financial picture and demographic trends in order to see if Brookline was as “broke” as the school committee claimed in negotiations sessions. We also looked at the stability of school staffing because the core of schools is its educators.
In regard to town revenue, even aside from the $25+ million dollars that the town has spent to acquire property this year, the BEU found that the town of Brookline has the ability, capacity, and obligation to increase ad/or reallocate revenue to fund what the BEU has demanded at the bargaining table.
BROOKLINE EDUCATORS ARE LEAVING
Clearly there is an ability and an argument to increase revenue in town, but there is also a need to weigh how existing revenue is allocated.
It is well known that property values on which revenue depends are driven by the quality of public schools, and that quality is first and foremost a reflection of the quality of teaching. Our classroom educators and related service providers are our students’ greatest source of stability in a school system that has had 6 superintendents in 7 years and an unusually high turnover of principals and central administrators.
In the absence of a contract that is more fair, Brookline’s educators, including much needed teachers, paraprofessionals, and related service providers, are leaving the district. Before COVID hit, Brookline had the lowest rate of retention among peer districts with just under 85%. For reference, Newton was at 89% and Wellesley, Needham, Lincoln / Sudbury, Lexington, and Concord / Carlisle were over 90% staff retention rates. Through February of this year, Brookline remains among the lowest retention rates of peer districts at just under 83%. Weston and Wellesley are comparable in these numbers, but both have CBA’s where top earners make more than Brookline teachers. Districts such as Newton and Concord Carlisle pay their veteran teachers more than Brookline as well.
SETTLING LONG-TERM, FAIR CONTRACTS IS GOOD FOR BROOKLINE
On April 19, 2022, the Select Board released $3.5 million of federal Covid emergency funds to the schools. Now it is time to agree to a fair contract. Past time.
All budgets and all contracts commit to costs that stretch into the future and it is past time that the first priority be a commitment to the teaching staff. The BEU’s current proposal makes this planning easier than usual by giving the town even more time to reallocate and/or increase revenue. This includes using federal emergency Covid funds as a bridge to shifting its priorities to providing such supports.
The union’s idea that the School Committee rejected proposed settling two contracts for a total of six years (two of the years are already in the rear view mirror) which would have begun to erase the labor strife and uncertainty that teachers, administrators, and district leaders have endured for too many years. The cost of this labor peace proposed by the BEU would have been less than 3% per year with increases can be back loaded to allow time for much needed overrides and / or a true needs assessment and stakeholder review of where money is being spent and why by town leaders. These needs in the buildings have been identified by educators and outside reviews such as the most recent assessment of the Special Education Program Review which noted significant shortcomings in staffing levels and opportunities for all students, general and special ed, to access adequate academic and social emotional support.
Brookline schools have been a shining light in the state for a long time. In order to begin the work to build them back to where they should be, accept this contract proposal and let us get back to work with job security and retention fears allayed. The BEU proposals help provide the foundation on which educators can address the needs of the district and make it everything it once was.
— Eric Schiff, Chair, for the BEU Negotiating Team
Teachers, related service providers, and administrators in the Brookline Educators Union (BEU) remain without a long-term contract this spring after starting the school year without one for the third straight year.
Educator morale is at an all time low. Limits on staffing, lack of common planning blocks, and pay that is not keeping pace with inflation is putting retention of excellent educators at risk, including our much needed staff of color. This also puts our students at risk. Brookline’s overall retention rate stood at 88.3% in 2009. In 2019 before Covid, when comparable districts were hitting about 90%, Brookline had slipped to 84.5%. Today, retention is even worse.
Our classroom educators and related service providers are our students’ greatest source of stability in a school system that has had 6 superintendents in 7 years and an unusually high turnover of principals and central administrators. Making a commitment to educators in writing, one that prioritizes a) working conditions that enable excellent teaching, and b) economic fairness, is long overdue.
The BEU seeks community support for:
PLEASE SUPPORT BROOKLINE EDUCATORS BY SENDING THE MESSAGE AT THE FOLLOWING LINK:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/brookline-select-board-school-committee-transfer-the-funds/
Brookline has long been known for its progressive values, quality of life, and engaged citizenry. Today, an increasing number of Brookline residents are calling on the town’s governance bodies and departments to identify and eliminate the structural barriers to participation in Brookline civic life that keep our community from becoming more racially and economically diverse. Such barriers limit access to resources, leave bias unaddressed, and allow the growing wealth gap within our school communities to widen. The Brookline Educators Union is trying to eliminate some of these barriers through the collective bargaining process. We are attempting to stabilize and increase the racial and ethnic diversity of the school staff at every school and all job categories to better and more sustainably meet the needs of all of our students, paying particular attention to the needs of our students of color.
In order to reach this goal, the BEU is calling for a contract between the BEU and the School Committee with provisions that will:
Hiring and retaining the diverse staff our schools depend on requires funding staffing and scheduling that demonstrates respect for the dignity of teaching. Unfortunately the school district has moved in the opposite direction; rejecting our proposals and threatening to impose a contract on educators that would increase the length of the K8 school day for no pay, weaken the right to uphold the contract through grievances, and limit exercise of autonomy by teachers. That stance is damaging morale and making the district less attractive to talented educators.
This community has always stood with its educators and we hope you will join us now in our call for a contract that will attract and retain a more racially and ethnically diverse staff to meet the needs of all our students.
COMMUNITY MEMBERS–PLEASE SUPPORT EDUCATORS BY SIGNING THIS PETITION:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/brookline-select-board-school-committee-transfer-the-funds/
We can secure the legacy of Brookline’s excellent schools
Be it ending structural racism, making teaching in Brookline a sustainable career, respecting the professional judgment of those in the classroom, or responding to the educators’ urgent demands to address untenable working conditions, the management of the Brookline Public Schools is demonstrating a gross lack of commitment to the quality of our schools.
BEU educators are dedicated to working with district management to secure a legacy of excellent Brookline schools. Sadly, the attorney employed by the school district is advising the school committee to not make contractual commitments with the BEU in regard to several issues that educators– the BEU members – have raised as bargaining priorities.
The school committee will not agree to the following: to strengthening due process protections for educators of color so they can bring their desperately needed voices forward. They will not commit to stopping the erosion of the economic value of public school teaching in Brookline. Nor will the committee members provide for proper staffing needed to deliver the services that they are promising families and that educators need for manageable workloads.
When the district had time in the budgeting process to commit to what educators knew was needed, they squandered it by finalizing a budget that did not pay its labor bill. When the BEU changed our proposals to give the district more time — over a year and a half — to plan fiscally, the school committee said “no.” Rather than work with us, the committee members went in the opposite direction and dug in on a bargaining package which suddenly diminished union rights and increased the length of the school day, unpaid.
Now, the Brookline School Committee is abusing a system that is supposed to uphold collective bargaining rights. While maintaining no more than a veneer of good faith bargaining by offering only miniscule changes to proposals, the committee has manufactured an impasse that can eventually be used to justify an endgame where management imposes their “last best offer” on the table prior to mediation. To that end, the school committee is holding pay hostage to those proposals submitted very late in the game — proposals that we could never accept — insisting that they will stay in a package offer until and unless we give in on pay. That’s not right.
In the meantime, Brookline educators have been forced to take it upon themselves to make workloads tenable. At the beginning of February, parents and guardians will see that the comments on report cards will not be as detailed as they have been in the past. Teachers simply no longer have the time to do everything that is being asked of them within the confines of a reasonable work day. Our priority remains providing the best possible education to all of our students, and that task requires a degree of planning, preparation, and collaboration among colleagues, all of which the school committee is saying it will not talk with us about. The committee’s actions are an insult to educators and a disservice to students and the greater community.
Brookline can afford a fair contract for educators
For several years, the School Committee and Town administration have diminished the investment made in the Public Schools of Brookline. Spending on Brookline public schools has shrunk as a percentage of the overall town budget despite the increase in students and services provided. Our community has crossed the line from fiscal responsibility to damaging austerity.
The Brookline Educators Union is fighting for a fair contract, one that the town can afford and that delivers the quality of education that our students deserve.
Revenue is available:
Reasonable approach to planning:
Brookline educators are well-paid in comparison to other similar districts, however, salaries actually grow less competitive the longer an educator works in our district. The salary “steps” are not raises, but rather they are an incremental progression through a wage scale that provides a discount to the PSB for every educator not on the top step. Brookline must make the value of each step fair and equitable for the duration of an educator’s career, valuing the educator’s experience and adjusting for increased living costs.
Brookline public schools are reaching a breaking point
The Public Schools of Brookline have long been regarded as among the best public schools not only in the state, but also in the entire country. Yet, the legacy and reputation of PSB are in jeopardy. The lack of investment that the School Committee and the PSB Administration are willing to make in our schools is taking its toll. Every year it becomes harder for educators in Brookline to maintain the tradition of providing a dynamic, comprehensive and challenging course of learning for every student we work with.
Quite simply, the austerity budgets we continually face make it increasingly difficult—and in some cases impossible — to teach to the whole child.
The Brookline Educators Union is trying to reverse that trend through contract negotiations.
Staffing is at a crisis level.
Wages have not kept pace:
Respect educators’ professionalism:
The BEU takes pride in the quality of education provided to our students. We cannot tolerate a work environment that feels like constant triage. And we refuse to simply “check the box” for mandates and initiatives and consider that an adequate education.
Support the BEU in its work to bargain a fair contract with the Brookline School Committee and demand that the town once again value—and properly invest in — its public schools.
Common Planning Time:
Last month, the School Committee issued the following public statement:
” – when teachers aren’t in front of students, someone else needs to be with them. That means additional hires.” The BEU does not disagree; it is a fact that since well before Covid the schools have been understaffed for the level of service that is being delivered to students. If the community expects this level of service to continue, then corresponding investments in staffing must be made, or the community should be made aware that the district can no longer bear the cost of the resources necessary to provide these services or programming.
Our team heard from building Principals in a bargaining session that scheduling common prep time was difficult and while we are holding firm that this time is needed for educators, we would propose that the time could be implemented into building schedules no later than 6/30/2023 to take effect for the 2023-2024 school year. While we know that Common Planning is crucial for grade level teams, teachers of specials, and related service providers / caseload educators to meet and plan curriculum, tiered intervention strategies, and brainstorm issues that arise for individuals or groups of students, we are willing to take the next school year to allow for necessary schedule and staffing adjustments.
Daily Prep Time:
As part of the public statement referenced above, the School Committee stated that its position on —“Fair workload” for language, art and music teachers” is that – “when teachers teach fewer students, that also means additional hires.” This is read by the team as acknowledgement that the current situation of teachers of specials and world language teachers is indeed UNFAIR. Additionally, we are not in disagreement that this would mean more hires; if this is not something that the schools are able to do, then the town should be informed that the level of service to which they are accustomed will need to change.
Our team remains committed to securing a daily preparation period of no less than 45 minutes for every educator. This change will make schedules more equitable throughout and across buildings. It is more evident than ever before that educators need time each day to plan, breathe, conduct other “self care” exercises, and take a break, even if it is a short one.
Commitment to Retention of Staff of Color:
At the Brookline School Committee meeting on 1/7/2022, this issue was thrust to the forefront of discussions around how our students see themselves represented in the buildings where they “live” every day. Our team has crafted language that we think both expresses a tangible and measurable commitment to recruit and retain staff of color. In this same public statement, we heard that “we do not need language in a specific employment contract to be strongly committed as a district to diversity, equity and inclusion.” We are baffled by this position. We see contract language as the very vehicle by which both parties can affirm their commitment to this valuable effort. We look forward to hearing language that you would accept that could lead to a common understanding of what diversity and equity could look like in the Public Schools of Brookline, but absent such commitment, we will stand by the language we proposed in November, which in no way limits the judgment of the superintendent and is zero cost.
JLMC:
When we first began the discussions to the successor contract in early 2020, this team of BEU Negotiators had 15 pages of thoughtfully formulated proposals that addressed issues of scheduling and workload. After meeting with hundreds of members (and people in the community), we distilled a set of issues such as preparation time, caseload and class size, teaching minutes, expansion of “4+1” into departmentalized grade levels, duties, extra help opportunities, office hours, stipend administrative positions, and others.
The concerns and solutions we presented were affirmed by the school committee as timely and legitimate. Yet we were told repeatedly that these issues were better addressed through administration than in a collective bargaining agreement. While we insist that the parameters of working conditions do indeed belong in a contract because this ensures fairness, consistency, and transparency, we also appreciate that the people who work most closely with students understand directly how well schools are functioning well or not. Recognizing the value in a collaborative process undertaken by a group of administrators and educators who work closely together in the buildings day to day, we devised a plan that can bring their shared experience to bear on the ever evolving challenges we are facing in our schools. We thus proposed a Joint Labor-Management Committee that would examine work activity and generate a “bargaining blueprint” for the next round of contract negotiations. We think all aspects of the contract pertaining to workload, including stipends, are relevant. The resulting report will be a recommendation, not contractual obligations for the BSC or responsibilities for Brookline educators. We are therefore standing with our last proposal on this JLMC.
Wage Proposal:
Lastly, we would like to bring you up to date on our research around wages that lead to our proposal of nine percent over the three year contract. Again, I reference the public statement from last month stating “if we were to agree to the request of 9% over 3 years, that would translate into a salary increase of $2M for next year. **That would mean cutting somewhere between 25 and 30 teachers – the equivalent of eliminating all of the K-8 classroom teachers at Driscoll, Heath, Lincoln or Runkle, or eliminating music at all K-8s. It would mean larger class sizes, reduced program offerings, or both. ** Clearly, that level of staffing cut would be detrimental to Brookline schools, which is why the negotiators have offered 6%, which is still a financial stretch but is in keeping with what other contracts near us have settled for, thus keeping Brookline teachers as the highest-paid among our peer districts” There is a lot here to unpack, and let’s start with the last statement. We are not aware of any “peer districts” having been discussed during these negotiations. Are the districts mentioned in the public statement what you would propose that we are using for comparable districts if we end up in mediation or fact finding?
If so, we take it to be your position that your list are truly peer districts. We would submit for the bargaining record our own list of peer districts: Acton-Boxborough, Arlington, Belmont, Concord-Carlisle, Dedham, Dover-Sherborn, Lexington, Lincoln-Sudbury, Natick, Needham, Newton, Somerville, Waltham, Watertown, Wellesley, Weston, Westwood, Winchester.
We included all of yours even though some would be a stretch in terms of “comparable” but the list above would be amenable to the BEU.
If you are not presenting these formally and prepared to justify your points of comparison, we would expect a public retraction of the suggestion that you have presented these as part of negotiations at any point and allowed the BEU to formally question your choices. Should there be a need to engage in this conversation, we have a list ready for consideration that includes all of the districts mentioned and some others that we think are more similar to Brookline.
Again referencing the SC public statement: it references “Brookline teachers as the highest paid among peer districts.” The concept of “peer districts’ ‘ notwithstanding, our research places Brookline 2nd or 3rd among the districts chosen by the SC for pay early in an educator’s career and 7th or 8th among those districts in pay later on. We used the most current salary data from Brookline AND from those districts rather than salary numbers from three years ago. I don’t know if it was stated publicly in that communication or not, but there is a number north of $100,000 that is floating out there as average educator pay in Brookline. We calculated the actual average pay based on the “scattergram” data that you provided and it comes out to just under $91,000, not including longevity or other benefits. We would appreciate a public correction IF there has been a statement regarding that number.
The public statement, however, makes no mention of the current levels of inflation. As of November 2021, inflation since the expiration of the last contract (Aug 31, 2020) stands at 6.9%. This means that the 6% “COLA” referenced as the “committee’s offer” represents a cut in pay of almost 1% with another 18 months of inflation not yet on the books. Some believe that inflation will indeed begin to recede, but unless it turns negative, which is not a notion that is being entertained, that number of nearly 7% will not come down, but MAY (if we are lucky) lessen the slope of its ascent. Inflation lessens the buying power of money and this round has been most influenced by energy, housing, and food which are the bulk of educator expenses no matter where they are on the salary scales. Brookline’ scales have traditionally been among the higher scales in the state, which is appropriate given the cost of living in the greater Boston region. That is why we have limited our ask to maybe cover the cost of living / inflationary pressure on income and not asked for a raise. Our proposal would put the average pay for educators in Brookline just over $100,000 if there are no retirements and no new hires next year. If there were, that number would obviously go down. With the level of work and expectations of the community, we would not expect that our pay should be effectively cut.
This brings us to the actual COLA ask; we feel that the 9% (three percent over each of the three years of the contract) is both affordable and appropriate; in truth, it’s actually a good deal for the district. Each year, quite apart from 35% enrollment growth, the district embarks on new initiatives and endeavors while refusing to allow time in the teacher day for these to take place. We have been remiss in not insisting that we be compensated for this expansion of services in the Brookline school system. Instead, we insisted that time be carved out of the day and workloads be adjusted in order to make these things happen. Again, we have repeatedly been told that “collective bargaining agreements are not the place for these manageable workload protections.” So Brookline has gotten all this great programming while we have not demanded that it be paid for. The town has been expanding the school system offerings while setting educator COLA’s at low levels of inflation, and thus has not had to go to the residents for overrides. Well now inflation is high, and we need COLA’s that reflect that. We have also heard that “there is no money for these COLA’s”, and while we disagree, we can respect that the budgets for School Year 2021 and 2022 have been set.
We also respect that the budget for next year is being worked on right now and we will insist here and moving forward that budgets reflect the priority that educators be paid minimally for the rate of inflation; and also for any and all additional programming that comes with each school year. Brookline needs to make a decision about what it can offer students in town and what that actually costs; educators do the work to make the programming function, we will not also bear the cost of the programs on our backs any longer.
To this end, we remain firm at 9% over three years, but recognizing current budget commitments we would offer the following redistribution to our previous proposals:
YEAR ONE (2020-2021) 2% COLA retro to 9/1/2020
YEAR TWO (2021-2022) 2% COLA retro to 8/31/2021
YEAR THREE (2022-2023) 5% increase on ALL MONEY ITEMS IN THE CONTRACT
Year three involves a budget that has not been made yet, and we know that budgets are more than line items, they are statements of priorities.
Our research has uncovered some “line items” that could be addressed to show that educators and education is a priority in Brookline.
Brookline is among the wealthiest municipalities in the commonwealth and current budget priorities are designed to facilitate three things.
The following data confirms the above and shows that there are untapped resources in town that would allow for full and robust funding of the schools and staff. With over 80% of school funding going to staffing, there is no debate that Brookline schools ARE the educators, paraprofessionals, and administrators that make up the culture and “feel” of the building. When we state that there is “wealth” in Brookline, it is because we know that:
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