Photo: School Committee Chair Meg Moriarty at the Butler Elementary School
Days before an Oct. 9 public forum hosted by Belmont’s educators union to discuss the stalled salary negotiations on a new teachers contract, the leader of the town’s School Committee came before the Select Board to provide its prospective on where the talks stand, and asking the town’s administrative body to provide “additional guidance” to resolve the current impasse.
School Committee Chair Meg Moriarty said the committee’s “goal is a contract that values our educators and sustains strong schools while staying within reoccurring, predictable revenues.”
But with a significant pay gap separating the two groups, Moriarty also directed her comments to the Belmont Education Association as the prospect of a labor action grows by the day.
“Many of our students lived through the years of disruption during COVID. They need stability and consistency in their learning, and we owe it to them to keep them in our schools, keep our schools open, and keep learning uninterrupted while the adults work through this process,” she said.
Moriarty said the committee “has been very transparent and honest with the school community” by providing regular factual updates, recapping sessions, sharing proposals and data. The committee has presented “multiple salary offers” made with “the knowledge of the financial constraints” facing the town.
In the past two years, the town’s budget has provided the schools a shrinking level of revenue increase.
“Compensation remains a major issue,” said Moriarty, revealing the committee has proposed Fiscal Year ’26 [pay] raises across all units that are competitive with neighboring and peer school districts, that keep Belmont’s top salaries “among the highest in our comparative districts and beyond.”
While the committee’s raises are “sustainable” within future schools budgets, “by contrast, the BEA’s latest proposals call for about $1.2 million more in Fiscal Year ’26 and more than $5 million more over the three years of the contract.” To meet the association’s demands would “almost certainly require cuts to staffing levels and programs, increasing workloads to those who remain and at the heart of all of this are our students,” she said.
Moriarty acknowledged that Belmont’s nationally recognized schools are due to the community’s commitment to its educators and students. And “we need to get back to the important work, the work of teaching and learning, and keeping our focus on our students.”
“These negotiations are taking far too much time and energy away from that shared mission,” she said.
Moriarty then turned to the Select Board to ask for guidance in the negotiations, specifically “whether you expect the School Committee to stay within the [budget] allocation provided to us, or whether you see any other paths forward.”
“The School Committee remains committed to good faith negotiation and to a contract that values our educators, is good for our students, and sustains Belmont schools for the long term. Verbal or written guidance, once you have time to discuss on an agenda, is appreciated by the School Committee,” said Moriarty.
While the Select Board’s counsel will likely be forthcoming at its next meeting in late October, one board member made her opinion known on Monday.
Board Member Elizabeth Dionne said the board has received “a number of e-mails from parents asking the town to acquiesce to the educator’s contact demands. She said that “often times parents are not aware” that “approximately 70 percent of the budget goes to support schools and 30 percent of the budget goes to support town services.”
“We have consistently been cutting positions on the town side while adding positions to the schools which we acknowledge the need for,” said Dionne. “I’m not saying they’re unnecessary, but … the town and its residents have been very, very generous about supporting schools. We value our schools. I don’t see that the town can afford anymore.”