By Geena Monahan-For the North Star Reporter
Chanting “No contract, no peace,” and “Who are we? NAFT” in front of North Attleborough High School on Wednesday, Sept. 17, teachers in red rallied for pay increases, better benefits and improved working conditions.
North Attleborough teachers have been without a new contract since Aug. 31, and have met five times with union representatives and School Committee members over the past four months in an effort to reach an agreement.
“Our students deserve invested, high-quality teachers,” said Bob Collins, of the North Attleboro Federation of Teachers. “Our compensation, rates, benefits, and even working conditions are behind others in the region. It’s getting harder to fill vacancies and we’re seeing talented teachers leave for neighboring districts, which leads to bigger classes and educators being stretched thin.”
According to Andrew Powell, a field representative for the American Federation of Teachers, low wages in North Attleborough compared to other towns contributed to 17 teachers leaving for nearby districts, such as Mansfield and Attleboro, just two weeks before the new school year started.
Powell also noted that North Attleborough is in the bottom 15% of all Massachusetts schools in per-pupil spending. According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s 2023 report, North Attleborough spent $16,951.87 per student. Neighboring towns such as Foxboro, Mansfield and Plainville spent $21,553, $21,357 and $19,105 per student, respectively.
Ashley Scibilia, a fourth-grade teacher at Roosevelt Elementary, told the crowd that she and her husband, who is an eighth-grade teacher at North Attleborough Middle School, cannot afford to live in the community where they work.
“We’re being asked to do more than ever before,” said Scibilia. “It’s time we are fairly compensated.”
Theresa Smith, a sixth-grade social studies teacher at NAMS, spoke of changes teachers would like to see in paid time off and sick leave benefits.
According to Smith, North Attleborough teachers currently receive seven paid sick days and three personal days. However, these do not carry over from year to year, cannot be bought back at retirement, and cannot be used to care for a family member.
Smith experienced this first-hand when her daughter required surgery followed by several weeks of recovery. Even with a written doctor’s note, Smith was not allowed to use any of her personal sick time to care for her child.
“Seven sick days is not acceptable, and certainly not when we’re one of the lowest paid in the district,” said Smith.
When negotiations began in May, NAFT asked for cost-of-living wage increases of 7%, 8% and 9% over a three-year contract, to which the School Department countered with a 1.75% increase.
Powell told the North Star Reporter that after the meeting on Sept. 17, “both parties showed movement,” with the School Committee increasing its offer and the union reducing what they would accept. Still, both parties appear to be about 8% apart.
“One of the challenges that’s facing this bargaining is that the town, not the School Committee, withdrew $2 million out of the School Committee’s budget request for this school year,” said Powell. “What we’re asking for, we don’t think is unreasonable.”
Powell was referring to the “new requests” sheet in the fiscal year 2026 budget presented to the Finance Subcommittee at its May 15 meeting by Superintendent John Antonucci and School Committee Chair Tashsa Buzzell. The requests were broken into three categories: “high need,” “moderate need” and “enhancement,” totaling $1.69 million.
Of the “high need” category, eight positions for new teachers and administrators were asked for, along with Chromebook replacements and a new world language curriculum.
“We had asked for a $4.3 million increase year-over-year; the final budget gave a $2.14 million increase,” Antonucci said at the May 15 meeting. “That represented an over $2 million decrease of what we put on the table. But again, we had no expectation that that full amount was going to be funded.”
Antonucci then asked the committee to allocate $200,000 of the School Department’s revenue to ensure contractual salary increases for existing staff, along with bolstering the athletics budget and helping with the cost of transportation.
The final budget passed by the Town Council at its June 12 meeting gave the schools the largest increase of all municipal departments, totaling 4.8%.
“We meet every year with all departments. They submit their needs and wants, and through the process we fund the needs and try to fund as many wants as we can,” said Borg. “It’s one town, one budget.”
Town Council Vice President Keith Lapointe, who was in attendance at the rally, said there is no adversarial relationship between the town and the schools.
“The Town Council is highly supportive of the school system,” said Lapointe. “We need to come together to find a path forward.”