Payroll Review Part 2: A look at the Schools and a Year Over Year Review
We covered the city. Now the school department payroll is public for the first time. Put them together and that 3% number looks very different.
Written by: Dan Shibilia
Before diving in, three important notes…
One… This piece is a companion to our earlier payroll overview. Rather than repeat what we covered there, we want to focus on three things the original report left out: the Methuen Public Schools payroll, how it compares year over year, and how both the city and school payrolls changed from 2024 to 2025 despite everyone operating under what was described as a 3% cost of living adjustment.
Two… These payroll reports reflect the calendar year, January through December, not the fiscal year, which runs July through June. That distinction matters more than it might seem. Collective bargaining agreements and school contracts are negotiated and approved on a fiscal year basis, meaning a wage increase approved at the start of FY2025 in July 2024 would show up split across two calendar years. The calendar year payroll captures what was actually paid out during those twelve months, which can include the tail end of one contract and the front end of another. When you see increases that seem larger or smaller than expected, that timing is often part of the explanation.
And Three… This is not an exhaustive review of every employee or every line in either report. There is about 2,000 names in these documents and the examples cited here are ones that help illustrate broader patterns in how compensation actually grows year over year. No individual is being targeted, judged, or held up for criticism. Salaries are not being compared against any outside standard of what someone should or should not earn. This is data explanation, not a performance review. If a name does not appear here, that is not an editorial decision about that person's compensation. It simply means their numbers were not needed to make the point. Both reports are linked and fully available for anyone who wants to review every line themselves. If you feel something was missed or that a specific employee's situation deserves more context, the documents are there. Go look. That is exactly what they are for.
With that in mind, here is what the data shows…
The school department payroll: what it looks like in 2025
The school workforce is large and spans a wide range of roles and compensation. The Methuen Public Schools payroll lists more than 1,000 people, compared to roughly 511 on the city side, making it the larger of the two workforces by a significant margin. That said, the school headcount includes a substantial number of part-time and supplemental roles that a raw name count does not distinguish from full-time positions. Coaches, crossing guards, lunch monitors, cafeteria helpers, substitutes, and after-school program staff all appear alongside full-time teachers and administrators in the list. The result is a payroll that looks enormous on paper but represents a much smaller full-time equivalent workforce underneath it.
At the top, Assistant Superintendent Gina Bozek earned $156,499 in 2025. Associate Principal Cynthia Bennett earned $128,935. Administrative staff member Kelly Blanchette earned $121,240. Experienced teachers at the top of the salary schedule landed between $108,000 and $114,000.
In the middle of the teaching workforce, fully employed classroom teachers typically earned between $60,000 and $105,000 depending on their years of experience and position on the salary step schedule. Program assistants and special education paraprofessionals generally ranged from $35,000 to $55,000 for a full year. Custodians came in between $40,000 and $78,000. Cafeteria workers, crossing guards, lunch monitors, and part-time support staff filled out the lower end, often earning between $4,000 and $30,000 for the year.
The numbers, year over year
To understand what the 2025 payroll actually represents, the most useful thing to do is compare the same employees across both years. The data below draws directly from the 2024 and 2025 reports for both the city and the schools.
Keep in mind that these are calendar year figures, January through December, not fiscal year.
City side: the range is striking
Across more than 50 matched city employees appearing in both the 2024 and 2025 reports, the average year-over-year increase was about 12%. The 3% COLA is in that number somewhere. So is everything else.
Police and dispatch employees averaged about 16% growth. Fire averaged about 14%. DPW employees averaged roughly 12%. The variation within each group is just as telling as the averages.
Some examples where the increase was relatively close to the COLA:
DPW Maintenance Craftsman Eric R. Abel went from $86,593 to $89,889, up 3.8%. Patrol Officer Joseph Alaimo went from $106,408 to $110,593, up 3.9%. HHSI Building Inspector Robert Armstrong went from $101,523 to $105,502, up 3.9%. Purchasing Director Lauri Antonacci went from $122,148 to $125,334, up 2.6%. These are employees at or near the top of their respective pay scales, receiving essentially the COLA and little else.
Now look at what happens in the middle of the career ladder. Patrol Officer Mark Aiello went from $117,809 to $145,358, up 23.4%. Patrol Officer Jeffrey Brouck went from $143,579 to $180,810, up 25.9%, driven heavily by a surge in overtime and detail pay on top of step movement. Firefighter and newly promoted Lieutenant Cooper Brown went from $115,440 to $143,920, up 24.7%. DPW Custodian Julian Almanzar went from $61,557 to $75,250, up 22.2%, almost entirely from overtime.
The cases where overtime is the primary driver stand out clearly. Police Dispatcher Yohanna Almengo went from $80,806 to $108,337, up 34%. Her base pay moved modestly. What changed was the volume of overtime hours logged. DPW Superintendent Stephen Angelo Jr. went from $116,058 to $136,818, up 17.9%, with significant overtime stacked on top of a base pay increase. DPW Sewer Superintendent James Burgess went from $164,674 to $191,678, up 16.4%, with more than $38,000 in overtime and another $21,818 in longevity pay building on his base.
Some increases reflect longevity milestones being crossed. Police Administrative Assistant Lisa Alaimo went from $79,757 to $92,988, up 16.6%, largely because her longevity payment jumped from $9,050 to $11,130. DPW Utility Billing Supervisor Michelle Blanchard went from $95,126 to $107,839, up 13.4%, with a longevity payment of $9,815 in 2025 compared to $8,853 in 2024.
A handful of employees show decreases or minimal movement. DPW Mason Gerard Bedard dropped sharply because 2024 included a large accrued time buyout that did not repeat in 2025. That is a one-time event showing up in the calendar year data, not a pay cut.
School side: the same story, without the overtime
Across more than 55 matched school employees in both the 2024 and 2025 reports, the average increase for employees in stable, comparable roles was about 6.9%. Because the school workforce does not carry the same overtime and detail exposure as police and fire, the spread is narrower, but the step structure still pushes most mid-career employees well above 3%.
The clearest examples of the salary ceiling in action: Stefanie Boudreau went from $108,434 to $108,622, up a negligible 0.2%. She has reached the top of the teacher salary schedule. Assistant Superintendent Gina Bozek went from $151,941 to $156,499, up 3.0%, right at the COLA. Kara Brooks went from $94,550 to $97,447, up 3.1%. These employees are receiving the contract increase and nothing more.
Step movement tells a different story for everyone else. Jacob Aronson went from $72,261 to $81,320, up 12.5%. Lorie Aliano went from $53,551 to $61,731, up 15.3%. Tayla Aleci went from $61,879 to $70,286, up 13.6%. Amanda Asmar went from $75,177 to $92,622, up 23.2%. Caroline Beaumier went from $72,373 to $81,507, up 12.6%. Mariel Beaumier went from $59,283 to $66,476, up 12.1%. Tania Beauregard went from $58,670 to $65,493, up 11.6%. Nicole Bouchard went from $86,028 to $96,015, up 11.6%. Julie Boudries went from $92,145 to $103,554, up 12.4%. Laurie Beth Burns went from $93,813 to $103,185, up 10%.
What the data shows, in plain terms
Across both payrolls, the pattern is consistent. Employees at the top of their pay scale receive something close to the negotiated COLA. Everyone below the ceiling receives the COLA plus step movement, which together typically produce increases of 7% to 15% or more. Employees whose overtime or detail work increased substantially can see total compensation grow 20% to 34% in a single year regardless of where they sit on the salary schedule.
The 3% headline is the floor for the most senior employees. For the majority of the workforce, it is a starting point, not the ending one. We need to remember this when we talk budgets in the coming weeks.
Source documents:
2025 School Payroll Report: methuen.gov/DocumentCenter/View/5428/2025-School-Payroll-Report
2024 School Payroll Report: methuen.gov/DocumentCenter/View/4245/2024-Payroll-Report---Methuen-Public-Schools-PDF
2025 City Payroll Report: methuen.gov/DocumentCenter/View/5427/2025-City-Payroll-Report-Final
2024 City Payroll Report: methuen.gov/DocumentCenter/View/4103/2024-Payroll-Report-PDF
Collective Bargaining Agreements: cityofmethuen.net/255/Collective-Bargaining-Agreements
CAFO Financial Analysis, October 2024: methuen.gov/DocumentCenter/View/3640/cafo
Inside Methuen covers local news, community stories, and civic affairs in Methuen, Massachusetts.