North Andover teaching-assistant union lays out pay, leave and safety proposals in public bargaining session
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Summary
At a public bargaining session with the North Andover School Committee subcommittee, the union representing teaching assistants presented a broad package of proposals — including increasing parental leave to 16 weeks, new stipends for toileting and specialized programs, enhanced health-and-safety reporting, a $50,000 tuition fund and a request for a first wage offer — and the parties signed ground rules and scheduled follow-up meetings.
The North Andover Professional Support Association presented a wide-ranging set of contract proposals at a public bargaining session with a School Committee subcommittee, calling for larger parental leave, new stipends and stronger health-and-safety reporting as the two sides prepared to begin detailed negotiations.
"Both parties are here this afternoon to begin a process that is vital to the health of North Andover public schools," school committee member Kelly Cormier said in the session's opening remarks, stressing civility and public access to the talks.
Union field representative Kevin Tierney, who led the union presentation, framed the proposals with a municipal finance overview and said the union’s package was grounded in available local and state revenues. "We have excess levy capacity, big healthy free cash reserves" and a strong bond rating, he said, arguing that fiscal context supports at least some of the union's requests.
The union's headline proposals included:
- Parental leave: increase total parental leave from 12 to 16 consecutive work weeks for birth, adoptive and foster parents; the union proposed that the first 12 weeks be employer-covered (not deducted from sick leave), with up to four additional weeks drawn from accrued sick leave and an option to extend by mutual agreement.
- Toileting and specialized-program stipends: a $4,000 annual toileting stipend (split $2,000 in December and $2,000 in June) for employees required to provide toileting/diapering duties; a $6,000 specialized-program-and-duty stipend (also split) for staff assigned to substantially separate or medically fragile programs. The contract would allow one stipend only (specialized-program stipend supersedes toileting stipend if both apply).
- Health and safety: mutually developed, district-wide incident-reporting forms; an annual joint review of aggregate safety data; annual staff training on reporting protocols and behavior-management; timelines for written reporting to building principals and forwarding (redacted as required by student-record law) to the union president.
- Sick-day incentive and family sick leave: a proposal to allow members to exchange unused sick days for a cash incentive (example cited: $1,500) to reduce the district’s unfunded sick-leave liability, and removal of the 10-day-per-year limit on family sick days while expanding the definition of eligible family members (to include nieces/nephews and other dependents).
- Job protections and workforce development: reduce the TA probationary period from three years to one year; a TA-to-teacher pipeline with a free MTEL-preparation course at least once per year; transfer of accrued benefits when TAs move into other district positions; career-award pay increases tied to approved professional-development credits.
- Compensation mechanics: proposals for longevity pay, compensation for involuntary transfers notified late in the summer (one day's pay if notified after June 15), and a 403(b) matching contribution (up to $500 pretax per year). The union reserved the right to make specific wage proposals later but asked the committee to make a "serious initial wage offer" to speed negotiations.
- Other contract items: full release time for the union president with the union reimbursing the district for the first $25,000 of the position annually; a shared $50,000 annual tuition-reimbursement pool (available to multiple bargaining units) with per-member limits tied to Salem State tuition rates; an evergreen clause to keep certain terms (wages/hours and grievance procedures) in effect during contract expiration; and restrictions on subcontracting unit work.
The union tied many requests to financial evidence presented in the meeting. Tierney cited Chapter 70 trends and the Student Opportunity Act funding changes, noting the district’s Chapter 70 aid rose from roughly $9 million in FY21 to more than $13 million in recent years, and he described local revenue patterns such as multi-year surplus receipts and stabilization funds.
Neither side presented a formal wage motion or reached a tentative agreement during the session. The parties did, however, sign the ground rules for the public bargaining sessions and set a series of follow-up meeting dates to continue negotiations.
The school committee and union scheduled additional bargaining sessions in late April, May and June to review the proposals in more detail and to exchange offers. "We would ask, that you make us a a serious initial wage offer," Tierney said, urging the committee to put a concrete figure on the table early in the cycle to facilitate productive bargaining.
Next steps: both sides agreed to return with more detailed financial information and to dive deeper into selected proposals (parental leave, health and safety, wages) at the scheduled follow-up sessions.
