On February 13th, BTU members across the city held standouts to call on the district to show some love for BPS students and BTU members by ratifying a contract which provides the proper resources to ensure BPS has a brighter future.
Fox25 Boston:
‘“It’s expensive to live in Boston, so our educators are not able to afford to live there especially our para educators, many of whom are from our community, and so they’re moving away, and so we’re losing good educators because they can’t afford to live here,” said Nora Paul-Schultz, a Boston teacher.
One of their biggest concerns is pay, especially for paraprofessionals.
“There are paraprofessionals that make less than 30,000 dollars a year and they are some of the hardest working people in the building,” said Claude James, an ABA Specialist at Fenway High School.
The union says another big issue is staffing inclusive classrooms.
“We’re the only district in the state where one teacher will be teaching a room with special ed students and general ed students by themselves and there’s not a second educator in the room with them and that’s not helping our students,” said Paul-Schultz.’
The Boston Teachers Union continues contract negotiations and Boston educators and their allies are making their demands heard.
Educators and supporters staged standouts at 11 different locations across the city on Thursday, including demonstrations in Charlestown, Mattapan and West Roxbury
The standouts call on the city to take meaningful action at the negotiating table that will ensure every student receives a high-quality education.
The union is pushing for better pay, better working conditions and more support to be able to teach all students equally efficiently. Some specific asks include targeted support for special education and ESL students and adequate wages for paraprofessionals.
In a statement posted to the union’s website Thursday, officials said they are nearing agreements with Boston public Schools on special education, transparency around hours of work, rates of pay, and working conditions in autonomous schools. They also noted deals are close on language concerning paraprofessional work hours and teacher salary credit.