School may be out, but several issues of concern to NPS parents remain top-of-mind for educators, parents, and administrators. NTA contract negotiations, lunch pricing, and Ward/Underwood planning remain unresolved.
Contract Negotiations
As previously covered by Fig City News, the current contract with the Newton Teachers Association expires on August 31. A July 17 email to the community from incoming NPS Superintendent Anna Nolin stated that negotiations remain unresolved and that further information cannot be shared because the participants did not vote to release talking points.
The most recent public NTA post regarding the negotiations reiterated the union’s focus on higher cost of living adjustments (COLAs). It further suggested that the School Committee negotiators may have made a “bargain with the devil” by accepting Mayor Fuller’s FY 2024 budgetary allocation to NPS, which requires staff cuts, in order to finalize a new NTA contract, but could possibly then receive an additional allocation to apply to non-educator expenses. The most recent School Committee update regarding the negotiations was issued on June 21, prior to the Superintendent’s July 17 email.
Lunch Pricing
Absent action from the Massachusetts legislature, school lunch pricing in NPS will no longer receive state or federal pandemic-related subsidies and will increase to $5.50 per meal in NPS middle and high schools, and $5.25 per meal in elementary schools. Congressional House Resolution 1269, the Healthy Meals Help Kids Learn Act of 2023, remains stalled in the United Stated House of Representatives. Massachusetts is not one of the states that has passed universal free school lunch.
Ward/Underwood
In a July 3 memorandum to the School Committee, Superintendent Nolin requested a special School Committee meeting to “discuss next steps” regarding connecting the Underwood/Ward facilities analysis to a strategic facilities plan across NPS elementary buildings. In that memo, Ms. Nolin advocated for “concluding” the existing Underwood/Ward Task Force. In her July 17 email to the community, Ms. Nolin stated that a special open School Committee meeting to discuss Underwood/Ward would convene on July 25, with a 30-minute public comment period.
Separate from the Underwood/Ward facilities decision, Ms. Nolin has also offered to meet privately with groups of up to 20 parents to discuss any issues or their concern. Fig City News is aware of several planned meetings, including one with parents involved in the Newton Literacy Collaborative who are advocating for Science of Reading-based elementary curricula.
