Unions describe stalled, strained negotiations with school district

Leaders of six Waltham Public Schools employee unions said the bargaining process has ground to a halt, as they enter a second school year with expired contracts. 

They described a pattern of canceled meetings, months of silence, with no end in sight for five of the units. Several union leaders said disrespectful treatment from the school district has permeated negotiations.

The Waltham Educators Association, the district’s largest bargaining unit with more than 800 members — including teachers, counselors and therapists — settled its contract in January after 13 months of negotiations. 

But members of the administrators, secretaries, trades workers, food service staff, IT technicians and custodians unions have all been working without a ratified contract since July 1, 2025. 

As a result, they are entering a second school year without wage and benefit increases to keep pace with inflation. Employees’ current salaries and benefits packages were agreed upon in 2022 and cannot fund their livelihoods in 2026, union representatives said.

“We’re now into year two with no salary increase, but the cost of living has skyrocketed and the cost of insurance went up exponentially,” said Kristine Scheufele, president of the Waltham School Secretaries’ Association. 

Representatives said the proposals they bring to the table are economically fair, with requested salary increases that fall below the rate of inflation. “This is not a bunch of greedy employees that are trying to outpace inflation and make a windfall. … It’s employees that are trying to keep members in some ballpark of the standard of living,” said Derek Vandegrift, president of the Waltham School Administrators Association. 

Lack of progress

As the cost of living goes up, the need for updated wages becomes more urgent, but union reps said the city’s School Department doesn’t recognize that urgency. In fact, they said they’ve observed the opposite. 

Three union leaders independently described a similar pattern: They present proposals and are left hanging for weeks or months waiting for a response from the city. Meetings are scheduled and canceled frequently.

“There’s been an expectation that our unit come with proposals that we will not receive responses to at a meeting,” Vandegrift said. 

Scheufele said her union has met with the district only a handful of times in the last 18 months and has heard nothing back since April. “It gets exasperating after a while when you are not making any forward progress,” she said. “We feel like we’ve been willing to make some compromises, but we feel that they have not.”

Edward Keefe, president of the Waltham School Building Trades union, said his unit had actually agreed to a deal with the district in June but is still waiting for a final sign-off. “You would think after a year they would want to tie it up,” he said. 

According to its agenda, the School Committee plans to ratify the trades workers’ contract during its Sep. 2 meeting, three months after receiving the union’s agreement. Keefe said that wait time is a first in his 18 years as the unit’s president. 

The delay is reflective of several unions’ experience. They all described the tenor of negotiations as noticeably more distant than in past contract cycles. Vandegrift, who has been a part of several negotiations teams during his 26 years in the district, called this the longest and most strained process he has seen. 

Scheufele agreed. “When you’re on your phone … it doesn’t tell me that you’re really interested in coming to a resolution.” She also recalled eye-rolling and muttering from district officials during meetings. “I don’t think that’s respectful behavior,” she said. 

Keefe said it was uncommon to get eye contact from Superintendent Marisa Mendonsa, human resources Director Kate Peretz or present School Committee members, whose gazes rarely left their laptop screens.

Scheufele pointed out that the meetings are more than just a waste of time; they also cost the unions substantial money in attorney fees.

The city’s attorney, Jonathan Atwater, Peretz and Mendonsa did not respond to requests for comment.

Union cites wage crisis

Keefe and Scheufele said the dispute isn’t just about pay. They see problems in how veteran employees are treated compared to new hires. 

Scheufele described a “wage compression crisis.” Under the expired contract, the district had discretion to place new hires several rungs up the salary scale, while longer-serving employees started at the bottom and worked their way up. 

“There are people that started two years ago that make the same money as me after 15 years,” Scheufele said, adding that the union has asked for a market adjustment to correct the gap, to which the district “flat out said no.” 

Keefe depicted a similar dynamic for trades workers. “It’s created some animosity among some members here,” he said. He said he raised the issue with human resources in writing and never received a response.

Scheufele agreed that the practice creates an uncomfortable work environment, undermining the perceived benefit for new hires. 

Hope that mayor ‘gets things moving’

Keefe, Vandegrift and Scheufele all said they hope Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy will step into the process, as they said she has in past disputes. 

Keefe recalled a prior negotiation cycle in which his unit was prepared to sign an offer, when word came down from McCarthy not to, because she had intervened to offer a larger increase to all city unions.

Vandegrift said he hoped McCarthy might “insert some sanity into what’s happening right now and get things moving again,” whether by attending sessions directly or working through the city’s attorney. 

McCarthy said in a communication with The Waltham Times that she was present for the School Committee’s Aug. 12 executive session to discuss negotiation strategy and would continue to go to those executive sessions. 

Scheufele said she had hoped to see movement after she and Vandegrift read petitions at the School Committee’s June 17 meeting, which McCarthy attended. 

“I think she was surprised by some of it,” she said. “I was really hoping that she would step in and help negotiate a closure for us. … But we haven’t heard anything from her yet.”

‘Confusing, frustrating and disheartening’ process

Union leaders said one of their biggest concerns is whether the district can attract and keep staff if the stalemate continues. 

Vandegrift said Waltham has already lost administrators and worried that newer staff may be quicker to leave amid ongoing uncertainty. Scheufele said the district declines staff requests that cost nothing, resulting in staff feeling devalued. 

Most of the union leaders said the process is stalled with no scheduled meeting dates. The trades union is the exception, with a long-awaited ratification likely coming Wednesday night. 

Keefe, Scheufele and Vandegrift have all been in the district for 15 years or more, and have each negotiated several times before. All said this cycle was not reflective of what they’d come to expect from the district. 

Vandegrift called the experience a blight on a fruitful and happy career in Waltham. “I love the community, I love the kids … and this is absolutely not representing my experience. And that is one of the things that makes this more confusing, frustrating and disheartening.”