Tom Tolen / news@whmi.com

Classes began today for the 25-26 school year with no major problems for the roughly 5,800 students in the Brighton Area Schools.

The air of normalcy took place despite the lack of a contract for the approximately 325 district teachers. The old, 3-year contract between the Brighton Education Association and the district expired on Aug. 31st. The two sides have been meeting regularly all spring and summer, without a resolution.

Superintendent Matthew Outlaw tells WHMI that despite the absence of a contract, in his words, “Both sides are negotiating in good faith, and we’re getting closer to an agreement.” He and BEA chief negotiator Jenny Sobolevski agree that the main hangup is the lack of a state budget. Democrats and Republicans in Lansing have been unable to come to agreement on a budget for the ’25-'26 fiscal year, and a major component of it is educational funding.

Sobolevski says, “We can’t move forward until the state passes a budget." However, she adds that the two sides are working in a collaborative fashion toward a resolution. She says, again her words, "We may not agree on everything, but there is an effort to understand the other side.”

The Republican-controlled state House passed a $78.5 billion state budget last week, which Democrats oppose in part because it eliminates the free breakfast and lunch programs for schoolchildren. The budget fight now moves on to the Democrat-controlled state Senate under a tight deadline. The state faces a government shutdown on Oct. 1st if the two sides don’t come to an agreement.

Regardless, Sobolevski says the BEA and Brighton Board of Education have what she calls a “positive momentum,” and foresees agreement on a new contract in the near future.

There are two other unions in the Brighton Area Schools, including the Brighton Education Support Personnel Association. BESPA represents roughly 100 food service and maintenance workers, mechanics, para-professionals, secretaries and clerical personnel, whose contract expired on June 30th.

The remaining union is the Brighton Area Schools Administrators Association, which represents about 20 high school principals, assistant principals and department directors, whose contract expired at the end of July. BESPA and BASAA generally settle their contracts after the BEA contract is resolved, and along the same lines.