Schools, Union Reach Agreement on Aides Pay

An tentative agreement was hammered out this week between the Belmont School Committee and approximately 100 teacher aides, corridor monitors and instructional support staff who have working without a contract for the past year.

According to Laurie Graham, chairwoman of the Belmont School Committee, representatives of the Boston Education Association – the union representing the district's teachers and aides – and the School Committee came to a settlement with the assistance of a state mediator. 

The agreement in principal will be voted by the Unit D members in September. It will then be sent back to the School Committee for final approval. 

"We all appreciate ... a successful end to the school year" in which all members of the BEA are under contract for the next two year, said Graham. 

The school committee would not reveal the conditions of the contract or any financial boost in pay. Earlier in the month, Union head Bob Antonellis noted that the two sides proposals were $37,000 apart.

The BEA had proposed a flat payment for current staff of $100 to $200 in the first year and no increase for new hires in the second year of the .

Employees would receive 15 cents more an hour with each "step" increase – periodic increases in an employee's rate of basic pay for each step they take up the pay scale – which comes to $168.30 a year.

Top-level educators – less than a third of the members in Unit D – would have received about $500 more a year.

With the agreement, all of Belmont School's union members are under contract until the end of the 2013-4 school year.