The School Committee and representatives of the Marblehead Education Association did not come to a contract agreement at their sixth bargaining session.
The MEA, in a press release, said that during the bargaining session, the School Committee “finally began to engage us in conversations about our proposals and acknowledged many of the problems we are trying to solve.”
The press release stated that the School Committee remains “unwilling to agree to language that would codify these solutions in our collective bargaining agreements and have offered no solutions of their own for us to consider.”
Approximately 200 MEA members participated in a march and rally to advocate for higher wages, safer schools, paid parental leave, and fair contracts ahead of a bargaining meeting with the School Committee last week.
The press release stated that the MEA’s proposal “would help lift all members of Marblehead Public Schools out of poverty and put them on a path to a living wage, and calls for fair and competitive salaries for Unit A educators.”
The release stated that the committee’s initial salary proposal was “disappointing.”
The proposal that the committee made included a 1% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the first year of the contract, a 2% COLA for the second year, and another 1% COLA for the third year.
According to the MEA’s financial presentation, the district has a long way to go financially to become competitive in the current job market.
According to the presentation, members of the Marblehead School Committee have repeatedly acknowledged the need to “drastically improve ESP compensation during their regular meetings in open sessions. The Financial Committee, in a recent meeting, also recognized that among comparable districts chosen by FinCom, Marblehead has the lowest three-year average increase in compensation to school employees (1.3%), including Unit A educators.”
“The more than 450 members of the MEA, in all of our bargaining units, are saying with one unified voice that now is the time for the School Committee to recognize that our students’ learning conditions are our members’ working conditions,” said Sally Shevory, a teacher at Glover Elementary School and co-president of the MEA. “What we have proposed to the School Committee are reasonable solutions to the very serious problems facing Marblehead Public Schools. We cannot continue to fall further behind neighboring communities. Our schools will continue to lose high-quality educators to districts with better working conditions, a better school climate, better compensation, modern parental leave, and more robust student services.”
Marblehead High School math and computer science teacher Michael Fu said the committee changed the original bargaining location shortly before the meeting was set to take place.
“What the School Committee did is not only a violation of the law, but also another example of the pervasive culture of disrespect within MPS towards educators, staff, and the broader MPS community,” he said. “The School Committee members believe they can do whatever they want with impunity. We believe that our schools need to be run in a collaborative way that respects educators’ voices and expertise. We are fighting for respect and dignity in our contract.”
According to the MEA’s press release, the union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state labor board in response to the School Committee’s unilateral change of the bargaining location. According to Massachusetts General Laws, parties must mutually agree on the time, date, and location of bargaining.
The union has been bargaining with the committee since March and has yet to reach a settlement on any of the five bargaining units it represents. The MEA’s press release said that despite well-documented problems with ensuring staff and student safety, the School Committee has resisted including provisions in the contracts that would codify solutions into the collective bargaining agreement.
“For the past four years, we, as staff, have carried the students through each and every day. Our school culture has deteriorated, the demands of our work have grown, and we have been asked to accept pay that has not kept up with inflation,” said Kristen Grohe, a teacher at the Village School. “We are fighting for a competitive cost-of-living increase for teachers that will help us attract and retain highly qualified professionals and will help us attract and retain highly qualified professionals. We are fighting for a humane and fair cost-of-living increase for our education support professionals. When your hourly wage is only $15, to be offered an increase of 30 cents is beyond insulting.”
The MEA also provided a presentation to the board with information it gathered by comparing the surrounding districts.
After the barging meeting, the School Committee sent a press release stating that the School Committee Bargaining Subcommittee met in a “productive meeting” with the MEA for their sixth bargaining session.
The release stated that both parties agreed there is room for improvement that would benefit some students who need additional support, and that the parties exchanged wage proposals.
“The union presented a wage proposal that included a 40% wage increase over three years for members of Unit A and a 50% wage increase for all other units over three years,” the committee’s release reads.
Negotiations between the parties will resume on July 16.