Dear Holliston Community:

The Holliston School Committee (HSC) and the Holliston Federation of Teachers (HFT) are pleased to announce that on May 23, 2024, they ratified a successor contract (September 1, 2024 – August 31, 2027) for Holliston’s teachers, subject to an override. This agreement demonstrates our shared commitment to the students of Holliston. It will result in increased instructional time for all students and competitive compensation for our educators in appreciation of their outstanding work. HSC and HFT Negotiating Team members met for over 28 hours since November, 2023, with a shared commitment to achieving a fair contract, advancing educational opportunities and outcomes for students, and attracting and retaining exceptional educators, notwithstanding Holliston’s current fiscal challenges.

While the 2024-27 Teacher’s Contract has been ratified by both the HFT and HSC, it remains contingent on the passage of an operational override at a Special Town Meeting and by election ballot. More information will be forthcoming in the next week following HSC’s meeting with the Holliston Select Board on May 28, 2024. At that meeting, the HSC will request: (1) a Special Town Meeting on or about the evening of June 17th, 2024; and (2) a ballot question at the Primary Election on September 3, 2024, to address the operational override. While we recognize that June 17, 2024 is the last day of the school year, we respectfully request your attendance at a Special Town Meeting. The current Teacher’s Contract ends on August 31, 2024, and we are trying to avoid holding any votes over the summer.

Why is an operational override being sought? FY25 has been a difficult budget year for several reasons: inflationary increases in operating costs, the important need to pay our paraprofessionals more to remain competitive with surrounding districts, weak Town new growth, and special education tuition and transportation costs, among other budget drivers. Our Teacher’s Contract ends on August 31, 2024, and we are committed to providing fair and competitive compensation to attract and retain outstanding teachers and support our students and improve student outcomes.

Highlights of the agreement:

Elimination of the current entry level step (step 2) in year one to allow for us to be highly competitive with other MetroWest school districts.
Starting with the 2025-26 school year (year two of the contract), instructional time will increase by 15 minutes at Miller, Adams and the High School and by 10 minutes at Placentino. This will increase annual time on learning by 45 hours and 30 hours, respectively, or an additional 7.5 days and 5 days worth of learning in a school year. Over the course of a student’s K-12 education this will equate to an additional 540 hours of time on learning or an additional half a year of instructional time! We believe that this will have a significant positive long-term impact on student outcomes. Exact details of what this means to start times and other operational issues will be announced before January 1st, 2025 to give families ample planning time.
Teacher cost of living adjustment (COLA) increases will be 4% in year one, 3% in year two, and 3% in year three. Additionally, in year two of the contract (coinciding with the increased time on learning), a new top pay step will be created for our most experienced educators that is $1,500 above the current top pay step.
The agreement also provides for additional scheduling flexibility while maintaining overall teacher preparation time, increased student monitoring at the middle and high school, and a Memorandum of Agreement ensuring collaboration between the administrators and teachers on potential future schedule changes at the middle and high school.

Preliminarily, the HSC estimates the operational override will cost ~$1.0-$1.2 million and result in an average increase in tax bills of ~$200 per year or ~$0.50 per day. This is significantly less than the recent $7M operational override passed by Arlington in November 2023, the $6.6M operational override passed by Acton in April 2024, and the $6.8M override sought by Franklin for June 2024. The HSC is also committed to working with the Town Administrator, Select Board, and Finance Committee on potential solutions to limit the impact to our senior citizens.

We are incredibly proud of the hard work of both the HFT and HSC Negotiating Teams to achieve this agreement over the course of 14 meetings and 28+ hours. The negotiating teams worked collaboratively to exchange concerns and to compromise to meet the needs of both students and teachers. While we are grateful to reach this agreement in the best interests of the students and teachers of Holliston Public Schools, we now jointly seek the attendance of the community on June 17, 2024, at a Special Town Meeting and at the Primary Election on September 3, 2024. Thank you for your support of Holliston’s students and outstanding teachers.

Sincerely,

Daniel Alfred Jaime Cutone

Chair, Holliston School Committee President, Holliston Federation of Teachers