Starting Salaries Raised With Amended Methacton Teachers' Contract

WORCESTER, PA — Starting teacher salaries in the Methacton School District will rise by more than $11,000 over the next three years after school directors unanimously voted on Tuesday evening to amend the existing collective bargaining agreement between the district and union.

School board members voted 6-0 to approve an amendment to the collective bargaining agreement between the Methacton School District and the Methacton Education Association that will increase the annual starting salary for professional staff from $49,000 to $60,000, with the new salary taking effect on Dec. 1, 2022.

The original contract began in July 2020 and runs to June 2024, but last night's amendment also extends the collective bargaining agreement through late June 2026, according to the school district.

"This agreement reflects the Board's commitment to our teachers and their role in delivering an exceptional education for our students," Methacton School Board President Elizabeth Drummond said in a statement. "It allows our district to be more competitive in attracting and retaining the best talent."

Methacton officials said the district has, like many others across the region and country, experienced a teacher shortage in recent time, something attributed to the fact that fewer college students are majoring in education.

This, in turn, has led to a smaller number of new teachers entering the field, and has led to an "increasingly competitive labor market for educators," the district stated in a news release.

Administrators said the amended collective bargaining agreement will shrink the gap of Methacton starting salaries and provide "substantial increases" to help offset the $7,000 to $10,000 pay differential that currently exists.

Methacton Education Association Co-Presidents Christopher Lloyd and Anthony Haley thanked school board members for signing off on an agreement that the union and district worked hard to finalize.

"We believe that the investment that Methacton has made in their professional staff will serve to improve morale as well as help MSD retain their staff in an increasingly competitive educational environment," Lloyd and Haley said in a joint statement. "This agreement is the result of many open conversations over long hours, and we thank the MSD administration for their commitment to this process. We believe that this contract extension reflects a renewed commitment to the professional staff at MSD and are thankful that we could reach this agreement prior to the expiration of our current collective bargaining agreement."

The district said that it does eye the need to raise school property taxes in order to finance the new agreement but added that it is routinely recognized as having one of the lowest school tax levies in all of Montgomery County.

The school board said it estimates needing to slightly increase taxes for the 2023-24 fiscal year, an increase that would result in about $154.01 more taxes for a home assessed at $174,000.

In years three and four, the district said, the estimated tax increase is projected to be much lower, around the 1.5 to 2 percent range.

The Methacton School District, which is headquartered in Worcester Township in central Montgomery County, is comprised of one high school, one middle school and five elementary schools.

It serves families who reside in Worcester and Lower Providence Townships.