Financial Impact Survey Results Letter to SC October 21, 2023
Dear friends of Hampshire Educators,
The HREA has sent the following open letter to the Hamsphire Regional School Committee. We appreciate your continued engagement and encourage you to remain publicly active in your support of our schools.
In Solidarity,
Greg Reynolds, HREA Co-President
Dear members of the Hampshire Regional School Committee,
During the week of October 9th the Hampshire Regional Educational Association (HREA) surveyed their 100 members to assess where teachers stand given the current state of negotiations. Here is what we found:
Of the 77 HREA members who completed the survey,
- 67 were teachers and 10 were Educational Support Personnel (ESPs):
- 34 teachers and 6 ESPs (51.9% of those who completed the survey) hold a second job to supplement their income.
- 44 teachers and 7 ESPs (66.2% of those who completed the survey) are considering leaving HRHS for a job in a higher paying school district or in a higher paying job.
- 17 teachers and 5 ESP (28.6% of those who completed the survey) are actively looking for other full-time employment.
These numbers are an accurate representation of the low morale of teaching staff and ESPs at HRHS. These numbers are terrifying. If even a fraction of these teachers/ESPs leave HRHS, it will have a devastating effect on our school. We will become one of the numerous schools in Massachusetts that cannot fill empty positions and we will lose the strong reputation and culture we have developed over the years.
A WBUR article in June 2023 reported that 48% of school districts in the Northeast felt that they were understaffed and an official from the MA Board of Elementary and Secondary Schools believes that the teacher shortage is not going away. HRHS has already lost three teachers before this current school year. We learned how challenging it can be to find replacements for certain positions in our school as we are now paying $110,000 for Speech and Language contracted services for this school year.
The US Department of Education produces a yearly report of the areas with the greatest teacher shortages. The teacher shortage areas in Massachusetts for the 2023-2024 school year include computer science, science, math, English as a second language, special education, social studies, language arts, and world language.
HRHS teacher salaries are not competitive with local school districts. The wage increases that you have brought forth through bargaining do nothing to bridge the gap between HRHS salaries and those of local school districts. In fact, your offers increase the gap. The Daily Hampshire Gazette recently reported that the average salary of HRHS is higher than Northampton. While this statement is a fact, it does not paint an accurate picture of the inequities in salary. If you compare the contracts at the two high schools, you will see that the teachers at NHS with experience are paid significantly higher than HRHS experienced teachers. For example, teachers at NHS who have their master’s degree and are at the top step in their contract, make $85,614. A teacher at HRHS with the same education at our top step makes $75,805. This HRHS salary includes the 2% raise currently on the table. Looking at average salaries only proves that NHS staff are less experienced than the staff at HRHS. Because the HRHS salaries are not competitive, experienced teachers are considering leaving HRHS for jobs that will increase their salary and standard of living. Our less experienced teachers are also looking for jobs elsewhere, because they can clearly see the enormous loss of income they will experience over the years if they stay at HRHS. Our teachers are tired of working second and third jobs to be able to afford working at HRHS.
Some of the teachers who have stated that they plan to leave our school are the teachers who teach AP courses at HRHS. It will be extremely challenging to recruit the experienced educators needed to teach these higher level AP courses. Only experienced and specifically trained teachers teach AP courses. Why would an experienced teacher take a pay cut to come to HRHS?
We leave you with two questions. What will HRHS do when the school choice students no longer want to be at our school? Where will we be when our district students choice out of HRHS because they are not able to take the rigorous classes that they have been planning on?
The future of HRHS is at a tipping point. We believe that if the HRHS school committee doesn’t bring forth an offer of wages that shows that the district is working toward paying our teachers a competitive salary, teachers will leave in great numbers by the end of the school year. Teachers will find higher paying teaching jobs and HRHS will not be able to fill the holes left by these departures.
Sincerely,
The Hampshire Regional Education Association