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Date: 5/24/2022
AMHERST – Teachers, paraeducators, and other members of the Amherst-Pelham Education Association (APEA) staged a united walk-in on May 12 in protest of the 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) offered by the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee (ARSC).
Union members called this offer a pay cut when considering the sharp increase in inflation. At the last meeting between the two parties, the committee originally offered a 2.5 percent increase before decreasing it to 2.
“There was no rationale for the reduced COLA offer other than the transition from interest-based bargaining to traditional bargaining,” said APEA President Meka Magee. “The School Committee offered no budgetary reason for this decision. The APEA can only interpret their action to be a punishment for our representative council voting to continue negotiations by traditional bargaining.”
Reminder Publishing reached out to the School Committee for comment and did not receive a response as of press time.
Negotiations have been ongoing since January. Magee said their goal is to ensure their paraeducators earn a wage to be able to live in Amherst. The APEA conducted a survey with 250 participants, all paraeducators, clerical and teachers. Nearly 70 percent of the respondents do not live in Amherst despite working there simply because they can’t afford it. Over 58 percent of the members surveyed spent at least half of their income on housing expenses.
Additionally, over 15 percent of members surveyed received public assistance while working with the district. Nearly 36 percent work another job to earn a living wage and over 40 percent of respondents said they have considered leaving public education specifically because of the low pay.
“We got a lot of feedback from people who are single parents who struggle to provide for their children, or people who might want children but can’t afford to go through the process if they can’t get pregnant naturally,” Magee said. “There’s this pressure on educators that we have to be perfect all the time, that talking about our financial realities or how they impact us personally is gauche or will invite undo criticism, especially after some of the aggression we got during school closures. Being able to share anonymously seems gratifying for people; they want the community to understand the material realities we face, and this allows our voices to be heard in a way that feels safe for people. These stories come from one-on-one conversations with members which is what is driving our energy in negotiations.”
The next meeting between APEA and ARSC is scheduled for May 26.