Nashua School Board, Teachers Reach Tentative 4-Year Contract

NASHUA, NH — School officials in Nashua have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with the city’s teachers’ union.

The Nashua Board of Education and Nashua Teachers’ Union agreed to a four-year contract covering the current school year and the next three years. The orgs have been negotiating for about seven months. Teachers will receive salary increases averaging 4.1 percent, each year, across four years. Nurses and psychologists are also involved with the contract.

The total cost of the raises to the district will be around $11.1 million.

“We very much value our teachers,” Jennifer Bishop, the president of the Nashua Board of Education, said, “and we are pleased we were able to make progress yesterday and come to a sound tentative agreement.”

Heather Raymond, the past board president, said negotiators focused heavily on raising the salaries of the younger teachers in an effort to remain competitive with neighboring communities. Negotiators found Nashua was paying $3,000 to $4,000 a year less for teachers who were just starting or had up to five years of educator experience. The changes will raise the salary of a starting teacher with no experience and a Bachelor’s degree from $41,000 annually to around $46,000 at the end of the contract, the 2025-2026 school year.

Not all teachers though will receive 4.1 percent though. Some will earn higher raises and others will get less. Teachers and others with a doctorate, as an example, will receive around 3 percent. Those educators, who max out at around $82,000 now, will earn around $92,000 by the end of the contract.

The previous contract offered raises up to 19 years of experience. That has also been extended to 23 years, Raymond said.

Garth McKinney, the superintendent of schools, said he looked forward to ratifying the agreement as soon as possible.

“Our teachers, nurses, counselors, school psychologists, and many others have been at the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic these last two years,” he said, “and this agreement recognizes their efforts and honors their work with increased pay, benefits, and support.”

The full board will review the agreement by the end of the month.

A specific schedule, featuring the base pay of teachers and what their salary would be based on education, was not available. It is expected to be available later this year.

Adam Marcoux, the president of the Nashua Teachers’ Union, said the process was long but he was happy with the agreement.

“(Teachers) have worked tirelessly during the pandemic and before,” he said. “I’m glad that we can turn toward ratification and are moving forward together.”

The negotiations appear to be less contentious than four and half years ago when union members rejected contract offers and complained about a lack of communication between all involved — and even threatened action against students including canceling field trips and refraining from writing letters of recommendations.

Got a news tip? Send it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube.com channel or Rumble.com channel.