NTA EBulletin: November 16, 2025

Another Victory in the Campaign to Restore

Full Time Kindergarten Aides!

The Honorable Superior Court Judge Sarah Weyland Ellis has rejected the appeal of the Newton School Committee to overturn the Arbitration Award to restore full time kindergarten aides in the Newton Public Schools. From the Middlesex Superior Court Docket:

11/12/2025

ORDER: Memorandum of Decision and Order on Cross Motions for Judgment on the Pleadings For the reasons set forth above, the School Committee's Motion for Judgment on the pleadings to vacate the arbitration award is DENIED, and the Union's motion to confirm the arbitration award is ALLOWED. The award of the Arbitrator is AFFIRMED.  So Ordered this 12th Day of November 2025. Copies sent 11/12/25

Will the School Committee appeal to a higher court—the Appeals Court or the Supreme Judicial Court? We don’t know. But as of now, the court has ruled that full time kindergarten aides must be restored!

NTA Dues Deductions

NTA dues deductions began with the November 14, 2025, semi-monthly paycheck and continue for fourteen paychecks, concluding with the May 31, 2026 paycheck. Please check your paycheck to see if there are any issues with your deduction. You can see dues and deduction amounts on this document. If you have any questions regarding your deductions, please email the NTA Office at office@newteach.org.

Know Your Contract (and Employment Law): Paid Regular Hours, Extra Hours, and Overtime Pay for Unit C Employees

While all Unit C members are paid a bi-weekly “salary,” they are actually hourly employees, and their salary is based on the number of hours they have been assigned for the year. Their pay and hours are governed by Massachusetts Wage and Hour Laws. Their schedules are governed by the Unit C contract.

Contractually, each Unit C member should, at the beginning of the year, (1) meet with their supervisors to schedule their assigned hours and, after the meeting, (2) their supervisor should send them a written confirmation of their scheduled working hours (Article 3, Section 5, paraphrased) using the form agreed to by the district and the NTA.

(FYI: Each year, we request that the district provide the NTA with these written schedules, and we check to make sure members (1) have indeed received a schedule and (2) have not been scheduled to work more hours than they have been assigned. We have received most of the schedules for this year from the district, and we are checking these now.)

Administrators have the prerogative to set up employee schedule so as to meet the needs of students. (When there is other limiting language in the contract, e.g. if the contract stipulates that the employee arrive ten minutes before the arrival of students, the supervisor must comply with this stipulation when scheduling Unit C employees.) Once the district informs an employee of their hours, then the district must adhere to this schedule. (Occasionally a member’s schedule may change, but this cannot happen willy nilly on a week to week or day to day basis.) The hours in your schedule are, then, your contracted hours. 

Based on this understanding of contracted hours:

• Your supervisor can require you to work beyond your scheduled hours, but you must be paid your regular hourly rate for those additional hours.

• Overtime kicks in differently. If any Unit C member works more than 40 hours in a given week, they are entitled to be paid an additional 1/2 of their regular hourly rate for hours they work over 40 hours in a week. This is state law.

• This means that if a Unit C employee works more than eight hours on a given day, they are NOT NECESSARILY entitled to overtime pay for the additional hours. Overtime pay only kicks in when an employee works more than 40 hours in a week.

• Days not worked (family or personal sick days, "Other” days, personal days, holidays or vacations) do not count towards the 40 hours an employee needs to accrue to be eligible for overtime pay. For example, if an employee does not work on a Monday because it is a paid holiday, and they work eight hours for three days and work ten hours on a fourth day that week, they are not entitled to overtime pay for the additional two hours they worked on one day. The district is, however, required to pay them their regular pay for the two additional hours they worked through a timesheet.

• In short, all hours beyond scheduled hours in a day are extra, and need to be paid via a timesheet at the regular rate. All hours worked beyond 40 hours in a week must be paid as overtime--in addition to their regular pay, employees are entitled to one half of their contractual pay rate of pay for those overtime hours in excess of 40 hours per week .

• Additional work cannot be “comped.” The district cannot provide compensatory (“comp”) time instead of wages. So, for instance, a BT who worked with a student during an evening sporting event cannot be told they can or should come in later than their regular start time the next day to compensate for the additional time. They must be paid for this additional work and they must be paid overtime if this additional work puts them over 40 hours that week. 

• For those administrators who might be tempted (with good intent) to ask an employee who works additional hours if they would like to work less on another day, you are effectively bargaining directly with the employee. This is illegal. Even if this might seem like a better outcome for both you as the supervisor and the employee to whom you are offering “comp time," you cannot, by law, neither offer this nor honor a request for comp time in lieu of additional pay.

If you believe you have had your right to wages violated, you should contact the union. You can also file a complaint directly with the Attorney General's Office here. 

In solidarity,

Mike Zilles, President

NewtonTeachers Association