Middlesex County

Malden educators and city reach deal

MALDEN, Mass. — 9:30 P.M. UPDATE

Boston 25 reporter John Monahan reports that the striking educators and school district officials have reached a deal. Classes will resume Tuesday.

ORIGINAL STORY BELOW

Malden educators and the city’s negotiation team are at an impasse but they went back to the table Monday afternoon. Earlier in the day Malden educators were making noise outside all of the schools. “Education is a right and that is why we need to fight,” some chanted.

The Malden Education Association, which represents about 70 teachers and staffers, is trying to work out a new contract with the city. They say they need to increase base salaries by 20 percent to be competitive. Deb Gesualdo is the President of the Malden Education Association. “We are hemorrhaging educators. The turnover has been wild in the past year or so and they are leaving to go to places like Somerville, Cambridge and Belmont,” said Gesualdo.

The negotiation team for the school district told us they want a fair contract but “there will never be enough money to pay what their true value is to our city, our students and our society. Anyone who has taught or been in our classrooms knows the incredible work that is done every day for our community.”

Some students and parents rallied along side educators. This brother and sister were with their mother and were allowed to share their take on missing school. “We deserve our teachers. They are leaving to go to these schools because they are going to pay more but we should have our good teachers. We deserve to have a better education than we are getting right now,” said Abigail Morrison. “It’s not a good reason to be missing class. The actual cause behind it is something that really upsets me and that I’m missing days of school because our district won’t pay our teachers fairly,” said Jacob Morrison.

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