The roughly 1,500 school district staff represented by the Cambridge Education Association will begin the school year with expired contracts after over 17 bargaining sessions with the school committee failed to produce a finalized agreement for any of the union’s five bargaining units.

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Many members of the union’s bargaining units, which represent teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals and other groups of employees, have started work ahead of the upcoming first day of school on September 1. Most of their contracts expire on August 31.

The district’s clerical workers are already working under previous agreements after their contracts expired at the end of June, although they are closer to finalizing, according to Sarah Rosenberg, the union’s vice president of community relations.

Although negotiations have stalled since they began over seven months ago, delays in the process are not unprecedented. During the previous negotiation cycle, CEA members began the 2023-24 school year under expired contracts.

The biggest implication of expired contracts is that “nobody is getting a raise at this time,” which is “really hard in this economy,” Rosenberg said.

Bargaining between the union and the district has been contentious this summer, with a union rally for higher wages and a statement from the Superintendent calling union proposals unfeasible. The district has reached agreement with other unions, according to its website.

The impasse seems to be in part related to arguments over increased wages for paraprofessionals, staff who aid teachers to give individualized support to students, an area where Rosenberg said the union is “not budging.”

The CEA is proposing a paraprofessional starting salary of $55,000, a raise from the current $32,000, according to a July 30 statement from the union. The School Committee is proposing a wage scale that would “increase base compensation of our lowest paid paraprofessionals by nearly 60% over the next two years,” according to Superintendent Dave Murphy’s July 23 statement.

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While Murphy says the union’s proposals are unfeasible under the district’s new budget, which was adopted this Spring and represents a slightly smaller increase than in previous years, the union believes the city can fund their proposed raises.

Union President Chris Montero referred to the city’s Free Cash budget, a pool of leftover funds of over $184 million.

The Free Cash is, “I will absolutely acknowledge, one-time money,” Montero said. “However, that is a lot of one-time money, and our wage proposals could be funded using that money.”

The union has also pointed to the city’s levy cap, a maximum amount by which the city can raise property taxes, which is not yet at capacity. 

Both solutions would require approval from the city manager.

Unlike in previous cycles, most of this year’s bargaining sessions have been between the district and all five of the union’s bargaining units, which the district’s website says is contributing to the lack of efficiency, while Rosenberg said it is for “unification.”

Talks will continue into the upcoming school year, with no hard deadline as to when contracts need to be finalized. Once agreements are reached, both the union and the School Committee will formally approve contracts.

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