Concord teachers will experience lower annual pay jumps over at least the next two years than employees in any of the city’s other major unions.
Next year’s increase, approved by Concord’s Board of Education on Monday, will be 1.5%. In contrast, the salaries for members of Concord’s police and fire departments will increase by 5% and 4%, respectively.
Salaries for Concord’s educators will increase by 2.75% in each of the final two years of the contract, which was ratified by union members last week. Under the previous contract, which expires at the end of August, employees received annual increases of between 3% and 3.25%.
Kimberly Bleier, the president of the Concord Education Association and a high school social studies teacher, attributed the atypically low pay bumps to a financially challenging year for Concord’s schools and to delays in the negotiation process.
When the budgeting process for the upcoming school year began this winter, the district faced an anticipated $17 million shortfall, due in part to a reduction in state education funding and to interest payments owed on the middle school building project. As a result of the deficit, district leaders were forced to eliminate nearly 40 positions.
“We did the best we could to move through and get over the obstacles and make a fair contract that works for both sides,” Bleier said in an interview.
“It’s not keeping with the cost of living, but given the status of the world and education and our community and our colleagues, it made sense to settle where we did,” she added.
The Concord Education Association represents about 385 employees in the district, including classroom teachers, guidance counselors, and school psychologists.
Bleier said the members approved the contract “overwhelmingly,” but she noted that some members voted against it. She declined to share the exact vote.
The raises in Concord’s contract also trail those of other area school districts. Merrimack Valley’s educators will experience an average increase of 4.2% next year. Districts in other cities, like Manchester and Franklin, will experience increases of 3% and an average of 10%, respectively, next year. (Some union contracts feature uniform percentage increases, while others vary based on an employee’s position and level of experience.)
At the same time, Concord teachers are among the highest paid in the state, with salary ranges higher than in surrounding districts. The average teacher pay in Concord was $88,000 last school year, which was about 30% higher compared to educators at Merrimack Valley and 40% more than their peers in Franklin, according to state data.
In addition, Concord’s minimum salary — $52,695 — ranked eighth among the 162 districts that reported that information.
While annual increases are typically tied to the cost of living, most unionized public sector employees receive an annual pay bump based on experience.
The union for Concord’s school administrators is currently negotiating a new contract. Its last contract expired at the end of the 2024-25 school year.
The timing of the negotiations on top of Concord’s financial crisis also contributed to the lower pay increases, according to Bleier.
Then-Superintendent Kathleen Murphy passed away suddenly the day before the start of this school year, which led to a grieving process and leadership transition. In the middle of the year, the union’s focus was diverted by the staff reductions. The union also dealt with a change in staffing at its parent union, NEA-New Hampshire, Bleier said.
In a typical contract year, the school board and union would reach an agreement between March and May, Bleier said. This year, it took until the first week of June.
“If we had settled this contract earlier in the year, I think that we would have been looking at different numbers,” Bleier said.
The union looked for non-monetary concessions to compensate staff for the lower pay increases.
The new contract will include one fewer day of required professional development, reducing the work year from 184 to 183 days.
“Time is money, so if we are working one less day, that’s one less day that young parents have to find daycare for their children, and that’s a cost to the members,” Bleier said.
The new contract also grants employees up to two days off for religious holidays.
However, in addition to the atypically low pay jumps, educators will have to contend with more expensive health insurance. SchoolCare, the nonprofit that administers health insurance for many school districts, is phasing out the plan that members are currently on.
The new plan that employees will transition to next year, Cigna’s Yellow 2.0 plan, will double employees’ out-of-pocket maximums. Beginning in the 2027-28 school year, they will have the option to transition to a different plan.
Bleier said that the health insurance change was a sticking point for some members of the union.
“We did receive some ‘no’ votes because of the cost of insurance,” she said.
