In the June 11 meeting, the Dedham Education Association shared two counterproposals to language first proposed by the School Committee Negotiations Subcommittee. The first lengthened the amount of time to start the day that elementary educators would not be able to be evaluated for formal observation, in response to the Negotiations Subcommittee’s proposed 10 minutes to account for the 10 minutes of earlier starting time to lengthen the elementary school day. The second counterproposal contained new language added to a proposal that would increase elementary school parent teacher conferences and reduce the number of elementary school report card periods from 3 to 2. 

The DEA also brought forward their latest wage proposal, which is as follows:

Year 1
3% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA)
$450 added to each Top Step salary

Year 2
3.5% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA)
$775 added to each Top Step salary

Year 3
4% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA)
$1025 added to each Top Step salary

As the Negotiations Subcommittee reviewed this proposal, they also shared expanded data that the School Committee is using to review financial proposals. This document now contains 42 comparable districts, up from 26. In addition to districts that are talent competitive within a 45 minute driving radius from Dedham and the 10 comparable districts based on enrollment characteristics, provided by the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education’s (DESE) District Analysis and Review Tools (DART), the School Committee added DESE’s Resource Allocation and District Action Reports (RADAR) districts, which provide comparable districts based on demographics and financial characteristics. 

While the amount of comparable districts was expanded, the district’s salaries remained at or near the highest salaries for steps 1 and 5 of all lanes, and in the top 10 (top 25%) for top step salaries across all lanes. Additionally, the comparison of recent settlements was expanded to include the new RADAR districts, and also updated to include the School Committee’s most recent offer of a 1.75% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Fiscal Year 2026. With this COLA, at step 5 of the Master’s lane, Dedham’s salary is 2nd among the 21 comparable districts with a settled contract, behind only Brookline. Norwood, whose educators received a 3.25% COLA, would require an additional 7.68% added to that 3.25% to match Dedham’s salaries at the School Committee’s most recent proposal. 

The district’s projected cost of this proposal and the supplemental information that informed this proposal can be found here.