This portal has been created to keep the Belmont community updated about the Belmont School Committee's (BSC) ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with the Belmont Education Association (BEA) for a 2025-2028 successor contract. We will update these pages regularly, and encourage you to check it often.

March 7, 2025

Dear Belmont Public Schools Community,

I want to update you on the ongoing contract negotiations between the Belmont School Committee (BSC) and the Belmont Education Association (BEA).

I am happy to share that our discussions continue to be positive and productive. Since our last update, we have reached 3 more tentative agreements (TAs), including:

• Adding parent-teacher conference days, which will increase communication between educators

  and families

• Providing educators the option to voluntarily increase course load, which directly benefits

  student learning

• Forming a joint committee to develop a new approach to meeting schedules, in order to provide educators adequate time to meet professional responsibilities

These TAs closely align with the values we outlined at the outset of negotiations. You can find details about these agreements on our “TA Tracker” in the BSC’s Public Portal: https://www.belmont.k12.ma.us/o/bps/page/collective-bargaining-2025. This page will be updated regularly as we make further progress, so we encourage you to check it often.

As mentioned in my community February 6, 2025 update, both parties are committed to finalizing an agreement before the current contracts expire on August 31, 2025. We recently completed our seventh negotiation session and, with only five more scheduled, both parties have agreed to extend the length of future meetings (from two to three hours) and add additional meetings, as needed. The full schedule of negotiation meetings is available here: https://www.belmont.k12.ma.us/o/bps/page/meeting-schedule-collective-bargaining. This page will be updated regularly.

We still have important work ahead. So far, we have reached 11 TAs, but there are many proposals to review – 233 proposed changes from the BEA and 81 from the BSC. To keep this process efficient, the School Committee is prioritizing key proposals that support our values, and has encouraged the BEA to do the same. While there is still much to discuss, I am confident that both sides are committed to reaching a fair and timely agreement.

Thank you for your continued support of the Belmont Public Schools!

Meg Moriarty, Ed.D., BSC Chair