Please send a message to Northampton's School Committee, City Councilors, and Mayor Narkewicz that we say NO MORE to inadequate funding for Northampton public schools . Ask them not to pass the budget without allocating additional funds for a fair and respectful contract for Northampton educators.

Northampton’s Education Support Professional, Cafeteria, Clerical, and Custodial units all have starting wages below $15 per hour. Over the past decade a Northampton teacher’s salary has increased at an average of just 1.08% per year --as a result, teachers in Northampton have some of the lowest salaries in the state.

NASE requested to begin bargaining back in September in order to start a conversation and find creative, collaborative solutions to this and other problems in Northampton schools. Instead, the School Committee and Mayor Narkewicz have delayed, deflected, made insulting and divisive offers, and manufactured a budget crisis in an attempt to force us to accept another inadequate education budget.

Did you know?

• In Northampton, starting pay for cafeteria workers: $11.64/hour
• In Northampton, starting pay for custodians: $12.01/hour
• In Northampton, starting pay for ESPs: $14.36/hour
• In Northampton, starting pay for clerical workers: $14.57/hour
• There are 289 school districts in Massachusetts and Northampton teacher pay is 19th from the bottom
• Northampton teachers make $12,000 less than Amherst teachers
• Northampton teachers make $8,000 less than Westfield teachers
• Northampton teachers make $7,000 less than Hampshire Regional teachers
• Northampton teacher average salary is $61,700 with a starting salary of $40,930
• Northampton is the lowest paid district of comparable size in the state
• $737,331 in taxes were just paid to Northampton from the first quarter of NETA sales, and the city says that once again, there is no money to give NPS employees a fair wage increase

NPS employees are not lobbying for a tax increase, they are asking for money that already exists to be allocated appropriately and to show that they are as valued as other city positions!

Please tell Northampton's City Council and Mayor - NO MORE!