Newton School Committee News

Dear NPS Families,

The School Committee and NTA held a mediation session today at the Newton Education Center. The mediation session began at 10am and is scheduled to run to 7pm.

We share the following details about our session today:

• Both parties expressed their urgency to return students to schools on Monday

• Both parties shared perspectives for their respective positions

• NPS shared restructured proposals on (i) parental leave, (ii) benefits, (ii) time on learning, and (iv) children of non-resident NTA members attending NPS

• We will be meeting all day tomorrow, Sunday, January 21, 2024.

The School Committee shared the following charts with the NTA during today’s negotiations. The first chart shows projected FY26 NPS salaries compared to districts published by the NTA. We updated their analysis using the most recent NPS proposals, the NTA-selected districts and the NTA’s methodology. NPS is the median of these NTA-selected districts:

* NPS and NTA dispute the correct salary table for Weston

The second chart shows how NPS proposals compare to the same NTA-selected districts:

We remain fully focused on settling these contracts and have restructured our proposals. The charts above do not reflect those restructured proposals.

Thank you to the NPS staff and community members who checked in on us, dropped off meals and sent positive wishes for all negotiators and a positive outcome for our students. We will continue our work this evening and all day tomorrow. Superintendent Dr. Nolin will be in touch with you Sunday evening by 7:30pm to update you on whether students can return to school Monday morning. Some of you have asked for resources for talking to your children about this strike, so we offer these resources: Talking to Kids About Strikes Resource Document

Sincerely,

Newton School Committee