The Marblehead School Committee Bargaining Sub-Committee met yet again with the Marblehead Educations Association (MEA) on Tuesday to continue negotiations for a new contract. This meeting was focused on Unit A, the teachers.
Another meeting went by without a reached agreement by the end. In a press release from the Marblehead School Committee it was stated that the MEA made no movement on their wages resulting in an increased cost of $9,691,000. That is still more than $5,000,000 over the School Committee’s current proposal.
In Massachusetts there is a law titled “Proposition 2 ½” which puts a limit on the amount of property tax revenue that each municipality is allowed to raise through property taxes. Marblehead already raises their taxes each year to the legal amount of 2.5%, this helping their projected revenue increase to roughly $1,000,000 per year. These estimates come from the Finance Department of Marblehead.
There is already a plan to raise the taxes once more next year to the legal amount of 2.5%. Due to the MEA asking for more money those taxes would need to be raised and an override to fund would have to take place. A request for an override would be brought to the Town Meeting which occurs once a year in the beginning of January and voting would later take place in May.
If the School Committee and the MEA were to reach an agreement that would result in voting on the override and if it did not pass the schools would still be required to pay the wages agreed upon in the contract. This would result in movements around the budget causing other departments to not receive as much funding, being fully cut, or a large amount of staff layoffs.
Since March neither side has been able to come to an agreement the School Committee has filed for mediation with the Department of Labor Relations. If both sides were to file jointly, a mediator would be appointed sooner than if only one side files.
In the Marblehead School Committee press release it is stated that “the Union bargaining team rejected the Sub-Committee’s request for a mediator.” Co-president of the MEA, Jonathan Heller, stated “that is false.”
“It is really important throughout this entire process that we are getting input from our members. We are a union represented by many, not a few,” Heller added. The MEA plans to speak with their members this week and will bring an answer to the table about mediation at next week’s bargaining meeting on Tuesday.
The co-chair for the School Committee, Jenn Schaeffner commented, “we have gone as far as we can go and the union has not changed their proposal.” The School Committee feels as though they’ve adjusted their proposals as much as they can and the MEA has not been able to meet in the middle resulting in an impasse.
Where does that leave the Marblehead School system now?
There is a walk out planned for 12:45 p.m. at Marblehead High School on Thursday to show support for the teachers. The students and faculty will walk out for fifteen minutes taking a walk around the school.
The next bargaining meeting will be held on Tuesday Nov. 12 at 3 p.m. where they continue negotiation efforts.
