Haverhill Education Association

06/10/2026

HEA Members: ESP Negotiations Tonight, from 5:30 - 7:30 in the Hunking Library! See you there!

06/02/2026

Melinda Barrett wants you to believe we must choose between funding public safety or funding public education, despite leaving nearly $1.5 million in annual revenue on the table as “excess levy capacity” in her FY 27 budget.

In addition to “reserving” this money to maintain 16 firefighters paid for by the federal SAFER grant expiring in FY 28, Barrett threatened other drastic cuts to public safety for the upcoming fiscal year as the only way to provide the School Department with the money it requested to restore “critical cuts” and add to the salary reserve for ongoing contract negotiations.

THIS COULD NOT BE FARTHER FROM THE TRUTH!

PLEASE take a minute to let Mayor Barrett and the Haverhill City Council know that they MUST accept the School Committee's proposed budget!

The Mayor is trying to punish educators, parents, and students who stood up to him in the fall to fight for fully funding our schools and a fair contract for educators. We can not let him get away with defunding our schools vindictively and arbitrarily. Please send an email to School Committee and C...

06/01/2026

HEA MEMBERS: Security negotiations are this evening @ HHS Front Conference Room from 6 PM - 8 PM! See you there!

05/29/2026

For an average of $45 dollars a year or 86 cents a week, we can improve the quality of education for the children of Haverhill. Feels like a pretty good deal!

Clarification and correction: Dues to a confluence of circumstances, it may be possible the School Committee and City Council can act without the mayor’s consent on adding $1 million to city spending. According to city code, Haverhill accepted in 1989 a state law that allows increasing city spend

05/29/2026

HAVERHILL EDUCATORS CELEBRATE COURAGEOUS VOTE TO ADD $1 MILLION TO SCHOOL BUDGET TO RESTORE SERVICES, PROVIDE LIVABLE WAGES TO EDUCATION SUPPORT PROFESSIONALS AND OTHER SCHOOL WORKERS

The members of the Haverhill Education Association are celebrating the courageous vote of the Haverhill School Committee to increase the school department’s FY 2027 budget by $1 million during Thursday night’s budget hearing. Toni Sapienza-Donais made the motion stating she could not support the budget as presented, citing cuts to student services and a lack of sufficient reserves to provide Education Support Professionals, Security Specialists, and Clerical staff represented by the HEA, as well as other school workers, with livable wages during ongoing contract negotiations.

Bobby Brown, III, Penelope Geurrero, Josiah Morrow, Mirca Zoraida Rivera, Maura Ryan-Ciardiello, and Jill Story joined Sapienza-Donais in voting for the amendment. Thomas Grannemann and Amanda Basiliere joined Mayor Barrett in voting against it.

“We are grateful that a supermajority of School Committee members voted to increase the HPS budget tonight. This money will go towards restoring eliminated programs and funding contracts for our lowest-paid education workers,” said Barry Davis, a music teacher at Golden Hill Elementary School and President of the Haverhill Education Association.

Educators are extremely disappointed that Mayor Barrett, Thomas Grannemann, and Amanda Basiliere could not find the courage to support increasing the school budget at tonight’s meeting. For them, asking the average household in Haverhill for an additional 86 cents per week was a bridge too far.

“Robbing students of educational opportunities and supporting the continued exploitation of our lowest paid employees in order to ensure the average household in Haverhill can save 86 cents per week is unconscionable. We would hope their charade tonight was more a product of ignorance than of malice, and invite them to publicly support the will of the majority of the Committee,” continued Davis.

Later in the evening the Committee voted unanimously to approve a new contract for teachers which will run retroactively from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2028.

05/28/2026

Mayor Barrett's austerity budget has forced Dr. Marotta to propose significant cuts to the Haverhill Public Schools. The most recent round of cuts - roughly $350,000 worth - reduces academic programs, increases class sizes, and forces educators to do more, with less. To make matters worse, there's nowhere near enough money in the proposed budget to provide living wages (or a path toward them) for our lowest paid education workers, ESPs, and Security Specialists, and a fair wage increase for our Clerical unit, according to Toni Sapienza-Donais, chair of the Committee's ESP and Clerical bargaining teams.

Please send an email to School Committee and ask them to exercise their power to stop Mayor Barrett's austerity budget and demand a fully funded school district! Our colleagues and our students need it!

05/27/2026

CALLING ALL HEA TEACHER CONTRACT MEMBERS:

05/27/2026

HEA Members, EBoard Election Ballots are in your email. Make sure to vote!

05/27/2026

HEA Members: Don't forget to vote in the HEA Executive Board Election today! Look for an email from Opavote. Can't find it? Email [email protected]!

05/25/2026

CALLING ALL HEA MEMBERS: ESP BARGAINING IS TOMORROW NIGHT!

5 years later, and still nothing from the Haverhill School Committee but the same old same old for ESPs. After they offered a lousy SIXTY CENTS per hour for security specialists (who also worked this whole year without a contract) across the district last week, the Committee is signaling what the ESPs can expect at tomorrow evening's bargaining session: lots of talk and no action.