November 12, 2023  

Statement of the Andover School Committee

After more than 20 hours of negotiations over the last two days with the Andover Education Association and a state-appointed mediator, we have yet to reach an agreement. The parties are scheduled to resume negotiations on Sunday afternoon.  

Throughout the day on Saturday and into early Sunday morning, the School Committee heard and answered the AEA’s identified priorities and offered proposals aimed at meeting those specific requests, which included:

• A cost of living adjustment for all teachers of 14% over four years, 3.5% per year. 
• A cost of living adjustment for all instructional assistants of 23.4% over four years, which includes 5% per year, market adjustments, step eliminations and a 2% differential for hard to fill positions.
• Accepting the AEA’s proposal to establish district-paid parental leave of eight weeks, with an additional four weeks of paid leave coming from accrued sick time, totaling 12 weeks. 
• Accepting the AEA’s proposal to allow the use of up to 60 paid sick days during leave to care for a seriously ill family member.

We remain committed to reaching an agreement that returns students to classrooms on Monday morning.