MTA Members Elected in Contested Races Uncontested Races
Matt Bach was elected Saturday as the next president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association at the union’s 181st Annual Meeting of Delegates.
President of the Andover Education Association, Bach captured 653 votes out of 1,222 cast. John Sullivan, president of the Belmont Education Association, received 569 votes.
Deb Gesualdo, president of the Malden Education Association, was elected as vice president of the 117,000-member union. Gesualdo, a music teacher, received 665 votes out of 1,222 votes cast. Gayle Carvalho, president of the Quincy Education Association, received 557 votes for vice president.
Bach has served on MTA’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors. Gesualdo is a member of the MTA Board and NEA Board of Directors. She chairs the MTA Resolutions Committee and is a member of NEA’s Legislative Committee.
Following the election, Bach and Gesualdo addressed delegates and thanked them for their support. “Thank you for your confidence,” Bach said. “I know this is hard to believe, after two days of the hard work of Annual Meeting, but we all have more in common in this room, as education workers and activists and union members, than appears when we’re in the vigorous debate that we’re in. We have common goals for the common good. We’re going to get to work.”
Gesualdo said it is the “honor of a lifetime to serve alongside all of you and all the members in your locals. I look forward to continuing to fight forward with you to win thriving wages for all education workers in all of our locals moving forward.”
In addition to electing new union leadership, MTA delegates also voted for several people for positions on the Executive Committee, Board of Directors and Retired Members Committee and approved several policy initiatives.
The two-day meeting at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston included more than 1,500 in-person and virtual delegates. Immediately following the business session, delegates gathered on Boylston Street for an “Educators for Immigrant Justice” rally to protest aggressive tactics by federal immigration authorities.
President-elect Bach will succeed MTA President Max Page, an architecture professor at UMass Amherst, who was president for two consecutive terms and the former vice president of the MTA. He is a former president of the Massachusetts Association of Professors. Page is term-limited to two terms and could not run again.
Addressing delegates, Page said the union’s power lies in its solidarity. “Look around, this is where the power lies, not only to get the public education that we deserve, but the world we deserve. It’s right next to you.”
Gesualdo will succeed Deb McCarthy, the union’s vice president, who is nearing the end of her second two-year term. Both Bach and Gesualdo will begin their two-year terms on July 15.
Budget
In addition to the election of officers, delegates approved operating and campaign and public relations budgets for the upcoming year.
Following more than an hour of debate, the delegates approved an operating budget of $58,882,351 for the 2026-27 fiscal year. They also authorized a Public Relations/Organizing Campaign budget of $2,699,700.
The operating budget dues level for active members will be $566, a $13 increase; dues for clerical staff and custodians will be $339.75, a $7.75 increase; dues for paraeducators, food service personnel and other Education Support Professionals will be $170, a $4 increase. Annual dues for retired active members were increased by $5 to $35; while annual dues for retired ESPs were reduced by $5 to $25, under a bylaw change approved by delegates.
Dues to support the PR/O campaign budget will be $30 for active members, a $10 increase over this year; dues for clerical staff and custodians will be $18, a $6 increase; dues for paraeducators, food service personnel and other ESPs will be $9, a $3 increase.
Delegates also voted to take the following actions:
- Support a recommendation from the Board of Directors to provide funding for three ballot questions that are expected to reach voters in November, including $1 million from reserves to support a rent control ballot initiative.
- Provide $2 million to fight passage of a tax cut ballot initiative that would remove $8 billion from the state budget and benefit wealthy individuals.
- Designate $500,000 for a gun control measure.
Delegates also approved several new business items, standing rules for the annual meeting and bylaw changes.
Individuals and Organizations Recognized at Annual Meeting
On Friday, several individuals and organizations were recognized for their contributions to public education, labor rights and the common good.
The California Teachers Association received the President’s Award. The 310,000-member union was recognized for its coordinated bargaining campaigns and its leadership in spearheading a 2026 ballot campaign to continue a tax for the state’s wealthiest residents to help fund public education. The union collected 1.6 million signatures in that campaign.
CTA President David Goldberg accepted the award in a video statement. “We are realizing the only way we’re going to get out of this is through us; with our communities standing together in solidarity. No politician is going to come and save us. We are realizing we have to lean into our power.”
Education Minnesota received the Friend of Labor Award, receiving a standing ovation from delegates. The 84,000-member union has taken a leadership role as a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit fighting federal immigration enforcement near schools.
Education Minnesota President Monica Byron accepted the award, accompanied by Vice President Marty Fridgen and Secretary-Treasurer Ryan Fiereck. “It means something special to receive this award from all of you, because you know the fight from the inside,” Byron said. “You’ve watched enrollment fall, not because families moved away, but because they were taken or they were too fearful to send their students to school.”
LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts, a coalition of immigrant-led, grassroots organizations, received the Friend of Education Award for its work in advancing justice. Accepting the award, its organizing director, Danny Timpona, said educators have been essential in helping the organization, which operates a hotline in 40-plus communities throughout the state.
The delegates also honored Chandler Creedon Jr., a former president of the Franklin Education Association, who received the Honor Our Own Award from the Retired Members Committee, and Adam Brieske-Ulenski, who received the inaugural Distinguished Service in Public Higher Education Award. Brieske-Ulenski is a faculty member at Bridgewater State University and chair of its Early Childhood and Elementary Education program. His achievements include analyzing grade equity, persistence and retention data to establish actionable goals, and spearheading the redesign of key undergraduate and graduate programs that strengthen culturally responsive, anti-bias educator preparation.
Quote byMatt Bach, MTA President-elect
Safe Schools Now!
Following the Annual Meeting, delegates gathered outside of the Hynes Convention Center to demand justice for immigrants and an end to ICE’s detention and deportation of Massachusetts families. MTA members held empty backpacks to represent the students who have disappeared from schools as a result of Washington’s cruel detention and deportation campaign.
