Statement of the Andover School Committee as of 10:30PM
November 12, 2023
The School Committee and the Andover Education Association were unable to reach an agreement during negotiations today, and as a result, schools will be closed tomorrow, November 13, 2023. The parties are scheduled to resume negotiations on Monday.
In our update to the community this afternoon, we shared the AEA’s proposal of an 18% raise over four years for all teachers, which the School Committee cannot agree to without the town overriding Proposition 2 ½ at a townwide election.
The School Committee is aware there is a lot of misinformation circulating about our negotiations with the Andover Education Association (AEA). While we are not in a position to correct all of the inaccuracies being shared, we will share factual information as soon as we can. However, we think it is important to correct the record regarding this information released by the AEA today: “We are only $260,000 apart from reaching agreement for the first year.” The fact is, we are not negotiating only one-year contracts. The School Committee’s responsibility is to negotiate contracts that are financially sustainable for each year of the contract. We are negotiating two multi-year contracts. We must ensure we can fully fund each year of each contract before agreeing to full successor contracts.
In short:
- The total cost of the AEA’s last proposals is approximately $15.1 million.
- The total cost of the School Committee’s last proposals is approximately $9.6 million.
- The difference is $5.5 million.
We know teachers and staff want to be back in the classroom, and we want them back in the classroom with students. But we cannot responsibly approve a contract that ties the hands of the district and the town for years to come and requires both the district and the town to consider significant budget cuts that will negatively impact teachers, students, families, and other town residents.
We urge the union to return to school on Tuesday to end this disruption to student learning.