Sheffield — The president of the Southern Berkshire Regional Education Association (SBREA), which represents school district employees, has called a recent press release about contract negotiations issued by the outgoing superintendent “inaccurate” and “misleading.”
Back on June 9, members of SBREA held a rally outside of the school district office right before a school committee meeting that deliberated the contracts.
In a press release sent before the rally, Mount Everett Special Education teacher and SBREA member Roberta Sarnacki wrote that the association is bargaining for a cost-of-living adjustment on wages, adequate preparation time and professional development, and modern family-leave policies.
Employees in the district are grouped into two units: Unit A is the contract that all teachers are grouped into, and Unit D is the contract that all paraprofessionals, administrative assistants, secretaries, and food service personnel are grouped into.
By the end of the day on June 9, SBREA reached a tentative settlement agreement with the school committee over Unit D contracts. However, the school committee rejected SBREA’s proposal for Unit A contracts.
The contracts are negotiated every three years, and the current contracts expire by the end of the school year on June 30.
On June 12, three days after the rally and contract negotiations between the SBREA and the school committee, Superintendent Beth Regulbuto submitted her resignation letter to the school district. The letter, which was read at the school committee meeting on June 12, stated that Regulbuto’s last day with the district will be August 15. The district hired Regulbuto in July 2017.
On Monday, June 16, Cas Londergan from The Management Solution (TMS) of Auburn, Mass., sent a press release about the contract negotiations to The Berkshire Edge on behalf of Superintendent Regulbuto.
Londergan is the associate director of communications for TMS.
When asked if Regulbuto would be available for an interview about the press release and her resignation, Londergan wrote to The Berkshire Edge that Regulbuto “is unavailable this week for a phone interview. She asked if we could please use the quotes and information she has provided about her resignation and the negotiation process.”
The press release, as sent by Londergan, does not reference Regulbuto’s resignation.
School district superintendent’s side of the story
In the press release, Londergan writes that both the district’s school committee and SBREA “have taken a large step forward in contract negotiations after more than 10 negotiation sessions since mid-November 2024.”
“The two sides have reached a tentative settlement agreement over Unit D contracts, which include paraprofessionals, administrative assistants, secretaries, and food service personnel,” Londergan writes. “The contracts included a 36 percent increase in wages and a new benefit of 10 days of paid parental leave for Unit D staff members.”
Londergan goes on to quote Regulbuto in the press release as saying:
We recognize the valuable contributions that our teachers and staff are making every day, and we are working diligently to come to a fair agreement with our teachers that also maintains the financial health of the district. We recognize the importance of offering competitive wages and benefits, which is reflected in our tentative Unit D agreement. It’s also why we have offered Unit A an increase in wages that would bump 40 percent of our teachers to earning $100,000 before health insurance benefits.
Londergan writes that during the contract negotiations on June 9, the school committee “extended a proposal for Unit A that would increase all salaries by nine percent and ensure 10 days of district paid parental leave and asked the union to agree to a single duty period per week to help provide more support, and increase physical presence and engagements with students; an expectation for teachers seen across school districts in the state.”
She writes that SBREA rejected the proposal after six hours of bargaining.
Londergan adds that the school committee has asked SBREA to provide dates for contract negotiations by Tuesday, June 17. She writes that the school committee will file for mediation if those dates were not provided by Wednesday, June 18.
As of press time, it is unclear if SBREA has provided dates for negotiations.
However, as quoted by Londergan in the press release, Regulbuto states that the committee fully intends on filing for mediation. “We intend to file for mediation to help us reach an agreement that best serves the needs of our students, teachers, staff, and the entire school community,” says Regulbuto, according to the press release. “Our goal remains to provide high quality education for all students while honoring the dedication of every educator and employee in the district.”
SBREA president disputes superintendent’s press release
When contacted by The Berkshire Edge, SBREA President Andrew Rapport, who is also a social studies teacher at Mount Everett Middle School, disputed many of the details in the press release. “This press release characteristically contains several inaccuracies and misleading statements,” Rapport claims in an email to The Berkshire Edge. “The press release suggests that Unit D staff received a 36 percent raise and that teachers were offered a nine percent increase. These percentages are cumulative over three years, not annual.”
Rapport writes that “the Unit D staff did not receive a 36 percent raise” as Londergan claims in her press release. “The lowest starting salary this year is $15.72 per hour,” Rapport writes. “In the 2027-2028 school year that rate will be $20.22. That is a 22.25 percent increase. The highest hourly wage in Unit D this year is $27.47 and that will increase to $31.97 in the 2027-2028 school year. That is a 14 percent raise. Our members deserve better than spin. Initially, the committee wanted to give Unit D a 43 cent raise!”
Rapport adds that “while a nine percent increase over three years for teachers may sound significant, this lags behind cost-of-living increases and the rising demands of our profession and expands the gulf between our salary and that of Berkshire Hills and Lenox.”
“Meanwhile, the superintendent’s own contract provides her with a 12 percent increase over the same time period, in addition to a much higher starting salary which is one of the highest in the county,” Rapport writes. “If financial health is a concern, leadership compensation should be part of that conversation.”
While Londergan claims that there were “more than 10 contract negotiation sessions,” since November, Rapport writes, “In reality, we’ve had seven sessions, including one that was purely organizational. We’re tired of their spin!”
“Several of our scheduled sessions were canceled by the district, and multiple information requests from the union, including basic staffing and policy questions, have gone unanswered,” Rapport points out. “The superintendent’s press release also omits a key detail: After six hours of bargaining, the district rejected our last proposal, not the other way around. We returned to the table in good faith. They walked away without offering a counterproposal.”
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, June 26, at 6 p.m., at the Mt. Everett library.
