Schools, Union Reach Agreement on Aides Pay

All members represented by the Belmont Education Association now under contract.

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 …

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Letters to the Editor

Teacher's Union Responds to School Department Letter

"We have simply attempted to communication the facts to our members."

To the editor: Our only goal is to achieve a fair settlement for some of the lowest paid educators in the Belmont School System. We have simply attempted to communicate the facts to our members and to the Belmont School Committee. Contrary to the charges filed by the School Committee, the Belmont Education Association has made every effort to cooperate with the School Committee to achieve a fair settlement. We remain willing to meet at any time with or without a state mediator to settle all of the outstanding issues. Bob Antonellis President, Belmont Education Association

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Letters to the Editor

School Committee Responds to Union Action

Calls comments by union boss "a serious breach of bargaining protocol."

Dear Staff: The Belmont School Committee would like to address a serious issue that has arisen in the recent weeks. Since the fall of 2011, the Committee and Unit D of the Belmont Education Association (representing Professional Aides, Tutors, and Classroom Assistants, among others) have been negotiating a successor collective bargaining agreement. After months of negotiations did not yield an agreement, the Committee sought and received the assistance of a state mediator in accordance with the provisions of the public sector bargaining law. Mediation is a confidential process. On May 21, the parties met with the mediator. At the end of a five-hour session, the Committee’s representatives left believing that with the mediator’s help a deal…

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Teacher's Union Picket Over Aides Pay

In support of para-professionals who are working without a contract for a year.

You will usually find Bethany Fitzsimmons in a second-grade classroom at the Winn Brook Elementary School working one-on-one with students with special needs. "I love my work," said the Watertown resident who has spent more than a decade working in the Belmont School District. On Tuesday afternoon, June 5, Fitzsimmons was not in the classroom but standing with supporters of the 100 teacher aides, corridor monitors and instructional support staff – "the glue that keeps the system together," said Robert Antonellis, president of the union resenting Belmont's educators – who were placing a spotlight on their long-standing grievance. "We only want to have them to sign a contract but right now the School Committee has its feet in the sand," said…

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Schools Respond To Teachers Contract Agreement

School Committee chairwoman points to collaboration and innovation with educators union.

Stating the contract between teachers and Belmont schools signed last Friday "allows Belmont’s education programs to be sustained at levels similar to the current year," School Committee Chairwoman Laurie Graham said in a statement released today, June 20, that the three-year agreement with town educators "represents real collaboration between the Belmont Education Association and the School Committee."  Read the entire statement in a PDF file on this webpage.  The agreement that was endorsed by the Belmont Board of Selectmen allowed the school department to save upwards to $330,000 which, along with savings and additional revenue garnered in the past three months, allowed the schools to reach its 2011-12 level service benchmark.  The …

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School Committee, Teachers Reach 3-Year Agreement

Less take home pay, limited cost-of-living saves appox. $330K; restores all teachers, science courses.

The Belmont School Committee voted unanimously this morning, Friday, June 17, to accept a three-year agreement with the Belmont Education Association, the union representing Belmont teachers.  The School Committee vote, held in the School Administration Building in the Town Hall complex, came a day after the BEA membership voted overwhelmingly Thursday, June 16, to agree to a collective bargaining agreement that runs with the School Committee until June 30, 2014. "It's remarkable to have in a community such as Belmont an agreement that came about in a truly collaborative and innovative way and not imposed," said Laurie Graham, School Committee chairwoman. The agreement will cut the scheduled pay increases for teachers in half in the first …

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