WESTFORD — The School Committee voted unanimously to approve a new contract with the Westford Education Association’s Unit G – which represents math and reading interventionists.
Contract approval
A memorandum of agreement was unanimously approved during a Feb. 12 meeting. Members Mingquan Zheng and Marisol Garcia were not present during the vote.
“We’re very happy. Every unit has a contract,” WEA president Kristine Jussaume told WestfordCAT.
This updated contract comes as a previous contract expired in 2020, which saw two one-year extensions. Despite waiting three years for a new contract, Jussaume says the administration was “very willing” to negotiate with the unit.
“We settled it in about five meetings. The contract settled very quickly, it just took a while to get to their turn,” she said.
The new contract includes new benefits, such as preparatory time, additional hours in the classroom and additional retirement payouts for accrued sick days.
“They got prep time, they did not have that before. Their longevity increased and if they have unused sick days and they’ve been in the district for 20 years, each sick day equated to $25,” she said.
Interventionist positions eliminated without override
Even with these new benefits, however, several interventionist positions are at risk of cuts as officials consider the FY25 budget and whether to support a Proposition 2 1/2 override.
With a needs-based budget, positions would be preserved at current service levels. However, the original request has been reduced by over $800,000 at the request of the Finance Committee and Select Board and could see additional reductions.
These additional reductions could cut all middle school interventionist positions.
If the town were to vote to remain within Proposition 2 1/2 constraints, interventionists at the elementary and middle school levels would be cut and replaced with an academic coach at each elementary school.
“One of the benefits, starting next year some of our Unit G members requested to work more hours with the students and we got that. If the override doesn’t go through, that may not be a possibility,” she said.
Additionally, Jussaume says that no override would be “catastrophic” for the town.
“I’ve been teaching in the district for 25 years and we’ve prided ourselves in having opportunities for our students that other districts don’t have. We’ve prided ourselves on smaller class sizes. Without the override, that’s going to go away, potentially,” she said.
She added, “I feel badly that this is going to impact our students.”
She emphasized that though voters will make the final decision on whether to support an override, the union and administration maintain a “strong relationship” and are united in preserving as many positions as possible.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Christopher Chew did not respond for comment at the time of reporting.
