After over a year of negotiations, the Boston Teachers Union (BTU) and Boston Public Schools (BPS) have tentatively agreed on a new contract for BPS employees.
This new contract is effective from September of 2025 to August of 2027. It contains changes to support school staff to facilitate a better environment for both teachers and students, particularly focusing on inclusion programs and teachers’ wages.
All teachers’ wages will increase by 9 to 11 percent over the course of three years. The contract especially affects paraprofessionals, who are among the BPS employees with the lowest salaries. Their new salary will be the highest wage increase for paraprofessionals in BTU history, from 23 to 31 percent. Other positions, such as substitute teachers, applied behavior analysis specialists and family liaisons will also receive wage increases.
The contract will emphasize support for students with special needs, setting aside ten million dollars for increased inclusion services in classrooms. These services include hiring specially licensed teachers, as many teachers are required to obtain a special education license in addition to their general certifications. BPS is the only public school system in the state with this requirement.
BTU representative and Boston Latin School Classics teacher Mr. John Kerpan explains, “It’s one teacher doing two jobs, and so, starting two contracts ago, we were trying to get [BPS] to stop that, and this time, it was one of the last sticking points.” An additional four million dollars will also be set aside for English learners, who make up about a third of all BPS students.
The new contract includes other agreements as well, such as the new policy that all school-based BPS employees will receive their schedule and salary details at the beginning of the school year. The BTU also fought for substitute teachers and paraprofessionals to receive additional personal days and increased rights. Existing terms such as “guidance counselor” and “basic paraprofessional” will be replaced with language such as “school counselor” and “classroom paraprofessional.”
BPS employees have been fighting for a new contract with increased rights for teachers for over a year. New contracts are usually proposed about a year before the current contract expires, and the process heavily involves teachers’ voices. Each time a new contract is discussed, a committee is created to oversee contract negotiations between the BTU and BPS. During the negotiation process, teachers voice their opinions through school representatives, who relay teachers’ ideas to the BTU.
The negotiation process for the 2025 to 2027 contract was especially long because of the BTU’s commitment to gaining better accommodations for special education students and higher wages for paraprofessionals. A limited BPS budget was a significant obstacle in this process and contributed to the length of the negotiation of the contract. Despite this, the BTU remained steadfast in their goals. BTU representative and BLS history teacher Mr. Patrick Boor comments, “We’ve been negotiating up until all the way […] before the school year and throughout this year, trying to get a deal that is ultimately what’s best for students and the dedicated teachers here.”
During the year, teachers rallied and picketed all around Boston in their efforts to reach an agreement with BPS regarding their contract. They, however, notably did not go on strike while negotiating their contract, unlike many other teachers’ unions such as the Newton Teachers Association, which went on strike for 11 days during the negotiation process.
BTU members were planning a demonstration during Mayor Michelle Wu’s State of the City address, but they canceled it after BPS agreed to their contract shortly beforehand. The abrupt agreement comes after a year of negotiations, as BTU President Erik Berg suggests that BTU and BPS reach a tentative agreement to get ahead of President Donald J. Trump’s plan to dissolve the Department of Education and defund certain schools. The president has previously criticized Mayor Wu, suggesting that Boston could be a particular target of these plans.
BTU representative and BLS physics teacher Mr. Aaron Osowiecki concludes, “[The contract] just gives us closure. I think it’s really important that the paraprofessionals get a more livable wage, and so that’s sort of life-changing for them; for the bulk of the teachers, it’s not going to be life-changing, but for [paraprofessionals], it can really make a difference.”