The Marblehead Education Association (MEA) held a rally outside Marblehead High School on Monday afternoon.
MEA members donned red shirts and carried picket signs as contract talks continued.
“We are now one of the lowest paid districts in the North Shore, yet one of the highest performing,” MEA co-president Sally Shevory said to the crowd.
Shevory said the town’s biggest asset with regard to the health and well-being of the community is its schools. “Stop making excuses, and start finding the answers to bringing us a fair contract,” she said.
Hanna Partyka, a first grade teacher at Glover Elementary School, stressed the importance of listening to teachers’ concerns.
“When teachers express concerns about school security, mental health resources or emergency protocols, their input should be valued and acted upon,” Partyka said. “Ignoring teachers’ concerns undermines not only their professional expertise but also the safety of everyone in the educational system.”
MEA co-president Jonathan Heller read a statement from the district’s board-certified behavior analyst, Kristen Phelps, who was unable to attend the rally. “She emailed us over the weekend to share about the incidents that occurred during the first week of school,” Heller said.
“I had a CT scan at the hospital on Saturday and found out I have a fractured nose and deviated septum as a result of being punched in the face during a behavioral incident,” Heller read from the statement.
In Phelps’ statement, she said she did not want to blame the student, saying the situation was avoidable.
“The student did not have the support they needed to be successful at school…this is not their fault,” Heller read from the statement. “If our schools were fully staffed with highly trained, well-paid staff, we would have been able to see the child’s escalation and intervene before it got to the tipping point.”
Heller said Phelps’ statement highlights two of the biggest issues facing Marblehead Public Schools: safety and staff turnover.
Heller said the MEA had proposed a school safety task force, which he said was dismissed.
“The school committee can either continue on this irresponsible, destructive, and unsustainable path or they can commit to working with us to find the solutions,” Heller said.
Deb McCarthy, vice president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, also spoke at the rally.
“I had the opportunity about 15 minutes ago to get caught in traffic right through this beautiful community of what appears to be incredible affluence, and I cannot believe that we are here fighting for living wages,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy said she was “flabbergasted” to learn of the safety issues staff is dealing with. “It is unacceptable,” she said.
“We are here today because we are honoring our commitment to…a bargaining session that had been scheduled for weeks, as well as confirmed numerous times via email, text, and in a face-to-face meeting last Tuesday,” Heller said.
“Despite that long record of agreement on this date, the school committee made an error and posted the wrong date last Friday, by waiting until the last possible minute to post on a day when they were fully aware the town offices would close at noon. The school committee completely abdicated their responsibility to work toward settling a fair contract tonight,” Heller said.
As a result, Heller said, the MEA is calling an emergency membership meeting for next week. He told those in attendance at the rally to check their emails for more information.
“We remain committed to solving the problems in our schools and we will resume negotiations at our next session on Monday the 23rd — no more games,” Heller said.
After Heller’s speech, the rally marched down the hill from Marblehead High School to the corner of Humphrey and Lafayette streets, to popular songs such as Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” and Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood,” chanting “do your job” and “what do we want? Fair contracts.” Cars honked in support.
