When I launched my campaign for Holliston School Committee, I ran on the premise of investing in our future for our students and overall community. I felt I could help make a difference for my son who would be starting in the district in a few short years. I would have never thought that one of the first opportunities to do so would happen just days after Election Day. After careful review and consideration of the MOA over a couple of days, it was clear to me the proposed contract with the HFT was not just fair, but an opportunity to open doors into investing in our future. This was not just in form of dollars and cents, but also the ability to create new educational possibilities for our students and ability to apply new learnings on past decisions.
Here is why I believe this override (which is dependent on ratifying this contract) is an important step to investing in our future:
Teacher morale has been declining and it has a direct impact on our students
Morale is an important driver of positive outcomes. There are multiple studies that prove morale has a direct correlation to retention. As studies can be questioned, just think about yourself? If you did not feel compensated or valued in your position, would you stay? Our retention among teachers severely decreased during the last contract dispute (2020-22) with improvement just this past year. The below chart highlights our retention (gray) vs neighboring districts (blue).
When you compare retention among us vs. neighboring districts (yellow line), there is a clear difference. This relative comparison to 19 other districts helps eliminate the impact of the Covid pandemic on retention.
Our goal with this contract is to ensure our compensation is competitive among neighboring districts. The below chart highlights exactly that.
Where cells are green, means we are higher than the comparable district at that step and level. When cells are red, we are lower than the comparable district. When cells are gray, they are nearly in-line with the comparable district.
What does this tell us? We will be competitive. We have heard the community though and I want to recognize that competitive wages are not the only path to improving morale. However, this is the first step toward improved morale and retention – while also encouraging new teachers to join our district and stay. Turnover has a negative impact on the education of the students as new teachers take time to learn the district and grow into their roles. It takes time for a new teacher (just like in any profession) to fully hit their stride; minimizing turnover reduces the number of teachers that are new to the district.
Delivering positive outcomes
This contract provides many opportunities but also sets clearer language to improving our student’s education. The increase of 15 minutes provides over a half of year of education throughout the duration of K-12. That is not just an opportunity but definitive. There are other benefits including instituting contractual hallway monitoring versus the current contract that precludes any duties, creating a joint committee to review class schedule changes and review and optimization of our bus runs and schedule to refine pickup/drop-off times following the school start time changes. Details for many of these changes need in-depth coordination and planning before they can be finalized. With this agreement, we can begin that process. I pledge to work to ensure that this is also a collaborative process with the community at large and not just within the administration and school committee.
Accountability will be key
This agreement will help ensure positive outcomes but is the first step, not final. Accountability will be incredibly important. For me, we are responsible to ensure this
contract is not just executed upon but also, grown upon. Where we have firm agreement, we need to ensure it still happens. Where the details have not been finalized, it is our responsibility to drive clarity and outcomes. Our goal should be to build a renewed trust with the community as a School Committee. With trust, we can have hope and promise toward a brighter future through the progress we have demonstrated.
I cannot stress how important this override is for our community. This override represents more than just the work of one person, one committee or interest groups; it represents an investment to our future in Holliston. If you haven’t voted already, I look forward to seeing you at the polls on September 10th at HHS. Please vote YES not just for the sake of this override and contract, but as an investment into OUR future!
Warm Regards,
Frank K. Ogura
(speaking on behalf of myself)
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