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Dedham kids have to go to school tomorrow after school department, teachers reach tentative contract deal

NBC Boston reports.

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Isn't Dedham one of the top paid teachers in the state?

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Suggesting that strikes are only ever about pay suggests that you need some education on the matter. Thankfully, that's my job (different district, but public school teacher here), so let's see if I can help.

I can tell you that Dedham is definitely not the top in the state. Besides that, teacher contract disputes are rarely about pay: it usually has to do with protecting staff, classroom sizes, hiring more teachers (rather than having one teacher be triple certified in General Ed, Special Ed, and SEI), the creation of in district programs for students with needs rather than paying for them to go out of district, professional development support and a whole host of other issues.

And even if it was about money: don't forget, in many districts, materials and classroom setup comes out of a teacher's pocket; yeah, we might have a reimbursement of a few hundred bucks, but when one of my key evaluation tools I need to screen kids is 1100 dollars, you can see how that's woefully inadequate (and I'm in a district that pays on average more than Dedham). No doubt you're not one of those people who foolishly think that teachers 'have it easy' with our hours, or think that we magically don't do anything during the summer.

Teachers need support when working with children, and a strong contract makes sure that they have that support and make sure that the pieces are in place to do so.

Hope that clears things up.

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contract disputes are rarely about pay

, ha, ha, ha. good one.

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There was no victory here.But the kids and taxpayers lose again to a town whose taxes are so high, the middle class, let alone the poor, cannot afford to live here. If you look at the contract, the teachers are being forced to abide by sexual harassment policies because the harassment is so rampant-but that was gonna happen anyway, they agreed to stop striking,and they got minimal financial incentives that they were going to get anyway even without a contract. It was a waste of time-except that the town meeting was going to have to vote on whether to fire the teachers-the next step here that the union didn't want to get anywhere near. What we asked for and didn't get was a fair raise,more break time, paid summer vacation and more teachers. We were not given any of this

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No, that was something that came out from the superintendent in the days before the strike. Almost every surrounding district is paid higher. Also teachers essentially took a forced pay cut 2 years ago when they changed our health insurance so we are paying $2000 more for individuals and $4000 more for families. We had no choice in the health insurance change, but were promised that this would save millions of dollars for the town which would then be available to make up for the loss. When it came time for a salary increase, the money was no where to be found..... Glad to be back to work today!

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Dedham teachers don’t earn more than its close comparison Norwood? Does Norwood not have a larger student population? Are Norwoods scores not the same or better than Dedham’s?

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The teachers in your closest neighbor and similar town is Norwood. Their comp is significant les than Dedhams

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What other surrounding community are you referring to?

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They are towards the top and their overall scores are not, but those facts don’t matter. What matters is what they want. They will say you need to pay to get good teaching, but then when you bring up scores they will argue scores are not reflective of how well they are teaching or how much the kids are learning. But offer no other measuring. If you compare any other town with similar demographic to Dedham in relation to teacher comp, they will say it is irrelevant. They will say they need a certain comp because of the cost of living in Dedham And it’s relation to Boston, but When you point out their comp is on avg or higher or that they don’t live in Dedham, they will ignore that. They say they don’t do it for the pay, but then complain about it. Everyone deserves to make more, but then they shouldn’t make those statements.
The Dedham’s teacher union will say the town stalled, but omit their own stalling tactics. Both were wrong. They were already scheduled for mediation in November. So there really was no reason to strike now.
No one wants to look like they don't ‘support’ teachers so they are guilted or they will be looked at with crossed eyes.
Look at the jump in Dedham’s taxes in the last 10 years.

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nope.

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Site your source. on avg 82K.

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The state data is 2 years old. Current average probably closer to $85k - so a two teacher household makes $170k - plus pretty good health care (the above comment notwithstanding) AND an 80% pension (that I believe is exempt from state taxes - so more like 85%). Total comp is probably closer to $115k per year with those benefits.

Assuming that's an average, 80% of salary at retirement for pension - plus a TSA plan - a typical teacher should retire on about $125-$150k per year in pension and retirement withdrawals if they are reasonably good savers/investors (pension plus about $500k in retirement savings). An equivalent private sector employee would need to save about $2.5 - $3 million to generate that kind of income in current dollars - and I can assure you very few ever get to that level.

The one advantage is the private sector employee might have more money to leave for their heirs if they die early enough.

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Glad you agree by siting that site, they are in the top 20% of all communities in terms of salary. Is Dedham in the top 20% of their scores/grad rates? If your not able to mine the site, the answer would be no. If you want to compare to its nearest comparison, Norwood. Norwood has a larger pop, more diverse student body, more students with challenges and yet their performance is as good if not better on scores/grad rates.

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And yes they are! $82k average salary with summers off. They’re no struggling by any means.

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Nobody has 'summers off'. We are required to do professional development, develop new curriculum, have staff meetings, work towards re-certification, receive training in new techniques, study the new frameworks, tutor, etc.

And 82k is the average, including administration and specialists (as long as they are full time, they are included at FTE, or Full Time Equivalent). Most classroom teachers, even with a Master's Degree and professional status are making under 70k. The pay raise is less than inflation compared to the last negotiation. Nevermind the lack of avenues for sexual harassment complaints, increase of work hours without pay, and changes to healthcare that would have meant an additional 4k out of pocket expenses.

But sure, we all 'make 82k and have summers off'. Hope you like homeschooling.

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Nice try to spin. Their salaries/titles are accessible. Other than req prof development, any work for the summer is at your option, which means more $$$.

Hope you like the on coming charter wave.

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Inflation is is/has been less than 2.5%. Their increases are much mire than that.

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Looks like it worked.

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....than going till July or on Saturdays if the strike went too long kids.

Good to see that the Town and Union worked so hard over the weekend to bring their issues to a close.

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