LETTERS

As many are aware, we have been in talks with representatives from the APEA, the union that represents teachers, clerical staff, and paraeducators in the regional, Amherst and Pelham school districts, to extend their contract and negotiate wage and salary increases.

Our groups have met multiple times but have not been able to make progress toward an agreement, and the Regional School Committee made the decision on Thursday, July 1, to seek mediation. The APEA leadership has made several public statements about our negotiations, and we’ve received a large volume of email related to those statements, so I would like to respond and offer some broader context.

Our teachers, paraeducators, and staff are the heart of our schools and are critically valuable in delivering on our mission for the students and families of our districts, which is why we offer competitive pay that is above the average in our region. And, this is why we included two types of pay increases in our budget for fiscal year 2022: a cost of living increase (COLA) of 1% for all staff and STEP increases for staff who are early in their years of service in our districts. About two-thirds of paraeducators in the district are eligible to receive a STEP increase this year, on average about 4%. With a 1% COLA on top of that, STEP-eligible paraeducators will receive on average a 5% overall increase in pay next year.

There are other approaches to pay increases, of course, and we have told the APEA that we are open to other approaches, including allocating more of the $329,000 budgeted for COLA increases toward paraeducators.

In considering other approaches, we must recognize that our budget not only must reflect our values, it also must balance. An increase in spending in one area requires an equal cut in spending elsewhere. A larger increase in pay for one group of teachers or staff requires either a smaller increase for another group of staff or additional cuts beyond what already is planned in our fiscal 2022 budgets.

These are the types of trade offs that we must make in order to consider a larger increase for one group of educators.

We look forward to working with the APEA through mediation and reaching agreement on an approach that both reflects our values and is in line with our fiscal reality.

ALLISON MCDONALD

Chair of Amherst School Committee and Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee

The science has long been clear: human activities are causing Earth’s atmosphere to trap more heat.

Most Americans have now caught up with the scientists, and want their government to do more to stop the effects of climate change. Massachusetts’ elected leaders responded by passing The Next Generation Roadmap, which commits the state to becoming carbonneutral by 2050.

Massachusetts residents may therefore be shocked to learn that a littleknown entity called MMWEC plans to construct the “Peabody Peaker,” a new fossil-fuel powered electric plant in Peabody, Massachusetts.

MMWEC, the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company, supports municipal light plants, which are town or city-owned electric utilities

Thousands of good-paying green jobs and a brighter future await us.

such as those in South Hadley, Holyoke and Chicopee. MMWEC plans to build a 55-megawatt gas- and oil-fired plant to stabilize rates in the market for electricity during peak-demand times. The company claims that the plant is necessary for “protecting MLPs against this price volatility.” But ratepayers in towns and cities with MLPs already enjoy rates that are much lower than those paid by customers in the rest of the state.

The majority of South Hadley’s Municipal Light Plant customers said they would be willing to pay higher rates to shift electricity generation to renewables. Chicopee and Holyoke have requested to opt out of the Peabody plant. Everything comes with a cost. Many of us don’t want the cost of cheap electricity to be borne by our children, or by people in other communities.

Residents of Peabody and surrounding towns already suffer from high rates of environmental diseases such as asthma. Particulate pollution of the kind that would be emitted by the new plant kills 200,000 Americans per year through lung disease, heart disease and diabetes. Renewables such as wind and solar have become less expensive than fossil fuels as ways of producing electricity. Battery storage will soon be available to even out the supply of energy from renewables.

It is time to consign fossil-fuel power plants to the scrap heap of history, phasing them out as we build renewables. Thousands of good-paying green jobs and a brighter future await us.

MARY JANE ELSE

South Hadley