Hingham School Committee approves staff pay hikes, tables strategic plan vote

HINGHAM — June 16, 2025 — Hingham School Committee approves Kids in Action and interventionist pay increases, wrestles with first-grade enrollment surge. The committee voted unanimously at its June 16 meeting to raise assistant teacher rates in the Kids in Action after-school program to near parity with district paraprofessional rates, and to set a new $39.47 hourly rate for interventionists with three added paid holidays, following presentations by Director of Business Aisha Opong and Superintendent Katie Roberts. Roberts also reported that grade one enrollment at East Elementary has reached 73 students, above the district's 69-student threshold, prompting a budget-neutral proposal to add a fourth first-grade section at East while reducing South Elementary's second grade from four sections to three. Hingham Education Association President Jacqueline Bowe warned the committee that teacher starting wages fall below the Plymouth County living wage of roughly $61,000 even before accounting for student loan debt, and called health insurance contribution splits "a now problem" ahead of bargaining cycles beginning this summer. The committee received but did not vote on a draft 2025–2028 strategic plan centered on a district-wide shift from literacy to mathematics as the primary curriculum focus.