Salem Teachers Return To Schools Days Ahead Of Contract Expiration
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SALEM, MA — Salem teachers returned to the schools for the annual convocation on Tuesday just days before the current collective-bargaining agreement is set to expire.
Both sides have expressed optimism about the positive progress in negotiations in recent weeks — especially in areas that do not involve proposed compensation increases — with Superintendent Steve Zrike assuring on Tuesday that schools will open as scheduled even if no new agreement is in place before the Aug. 31 contract expiration.
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“Just because the contract expires does not mean that we will not have school,” Zrike said. “Because we’re making good progress, everything will eventually — any of the wage increases — will be backdated to the beginning of the school year.
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“It is not unusual that contracts lapse — especially if there are negotiations that are happening in good faith back and forth, and that’s what happening right now. We will continue to utilize the language (in the current deal) as we start the new school year.”
Zrike said the district is “cautiously optimistic” that a new agreement will be in place “hopefully, very soon.”
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The next full negotiating session is scheduled for Thursday.
The School Committee has said that proposed increases in compensation in the next deal — both those as proposed by the district and additionally in those proposed by the teachers union — would require program reductions in the future.
“There will need to be adjustments,” Zrike confirmed on Tuesday. “Probably not until the FY 2026 budget, which is not until next school year. We’ll start engaging in that process pretty soon once we settle the contract. … Hard to know what any of those shifts will be. But there will be (cuts).
“We already have a structural deficit. We need to pay our teachers and our staff more. So with that will come rightsizing and adjustments to some of the programs and the services that we offer in the schools right now.”
He said there will be community engagement sessions “probably earlier than we have in the past because there could be some significant shifts.”
Union representatives said following the last full negotiating session last week that the sides had moved closer to a uniform start to the school year but Zrike indicated on Tuesday that remains unresolved as well with the district seeking the flexibility to start the school year before Labor Day to shorten the amount of time school extends into June.
Both sides have said they would be open to a more uniform school calendar and length of school day in buildings across the district — as long as compensation remains commiserate for those faculty members who will be working longer days than they have under the current staggered schedules.
“While we have come a long way in those conversations at this point it would be premature to say that we’ve come to an agreement on that,” Zrike said. “But I think we’re close.”
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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