Lenox School Committee Elects DuPont Chair, Approves Unit C Contract

LENOX -- May 18, 2026, Lenox School Committee reorganizes and ratifies new three-year Unit C support staff contract. The committee elected Michael DuPont as Chair, Orrin Cass as Vice Chair, and Kim Winger as Secretary at its May 18 annual organizational meeting, all by unanimous 5-0 roll-call votes, with outgoing Chair Richard Burke announcing it will be his final year on the committee. The committee then approved the Unit C contract covering 2026 through 2029, which replaces a two-tier wage structure for instructional paraprofessionals with a six-step salary schedule modeled on the teachers' contract, adds flat hourly wage increases of $1.50, $1.25, and $1.00 in successive years, and launches a pilot tuition reimbursement program for paraprofessionals pursuing an education-track bachelor's degree, with the district retaining right of first refusal if the employee seeks a teaching job. Cass, who led negotiations, called the LEA "excellent partners" and said the trust on both sides made restructuring the wage schedule possible. The committee also received a public comment presentation from student Sonia, Class of 2028, who surveyed peers and found 80 percent believe district language programs need an upgrade, and called on the committee to expand foreign language instruction at Morris Elementary beyond its current roughly 12 sessions per year.