SOUTH HADLEY — The four units of the South Hadley Education Association (SHEA) have ratified a new three-year contract with wage increases for all staff just three months after many of its members demonstrated against the School Committee’s proposal in June.
The units are currently in the second year of the contract after the 254 members worked under an expired pact last year. The new contract bumps wages for South Hadley Public School teachers and staff by 2.5% for the current school year and 2% for the following year. Under the deal, members agreed to accept no pay raises last year.
Union leaders saw more of a compromise in this new proposal.
“The district’s negotiation team, in my experience, has never come up one whole percentage point, and we recognized that this was a proposal we could take back to our members,” SHEA President Amy Foley said.
Foley did not expect to settle the contract so soon into the school year. The union’s bargaining team entered into a tentative agreement on Aug. 19, and members voted to approve it on Aug. 31. Two days later, the School Committee approved the contract for each of the four units.
In a statement, the district and School Committee expressed gratitude that bargaining reached an amicable compromise.
“We believe South Hadley’s educators are among the very best, and are proud to have been part of a collaborative process that benefits both our valued educators and the town of South Hadley,” the statement said.
Earlier this summer, 50 members of SHEA took to the intersection of Newton and Lyman streets to speak out against the previous proposal. At the time, the district offered a five-year contract with no pay raises for the 2026-2027 school year, a 1.5% cost-of-living bump for the 2027-2028 and 2028-2029 school years and a 1.75% increase for the 2029-2030 school year.
Staff at the demonstration said the pay raise was not enough to counter inflation and health insurance increases, and fell below increases of other unions in South Hadley. Both the police union, MassCop Local 428, and public works union AFSCME Council 93, Local 1033 settled on a minimum 2% cost-of-living increase for fiscal years 2027 and 2028.
“We understood where the town was financially and with the budget,” Foley said. “But when it came to our value, the town needed to invest in us and make up the value they had shown to other town employees.”
While staff and teachers celebrate their new contract, several concerns remain unresolved. South Hadley voters rejected a $3.5 million Proposition 2½ override on Sept. 1 that would have preserved current teaching and staff positions. Without the funding, South Hadley Schools face more future budget cuts.
“I think teachers in South Hadley are exhausted because of this whole process,” Foley said. “I think we are seeing a lot of turnover and new staff. We are losing a lot of experienced staff to other districts that can support larger wage increases.”
Foley would also like to see bus duty and prep time at the elementary level addressed, and, most importantly, health insurance costs revisited. The Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust reportedly stabilized over the last year, but increased co-pays, premiums and deductibles have damaged public employees’ personal budgets, she said.
In the last year, family plans under the Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust increased 52%, or around $5,000 a year. The staff are not the only ones paying for health costs. According to the Appropriation Committee’s annual report, South Hadley’s own health insurance costs increased $3,238,071, or 64%, between fiscal years 2025 and 2027.
In the coming months, SHEA hopes to join the other unions in town to propose other health insurance options outside of the trust.
“I want to make sure that we have the foresight to take care of both our students and the town because those communities are so tied together,” Foley said.
