TEACHERS PROTEST THE lack of a new contract outside City Hall late last year. The bargaining impasse continues as 2023 gets underway.

 

MELROSE — As the city’s teachers continue their full-court press for a new contract, people in charge of looking after Melrose’s money feel it’s time to bring in someone else to help straighten out the bargaining impasse.

The teachers’ union officially expressed no confidence in both Mayor Paul Brodeur and the School Committee Tuesday night, just a day after the School Committee announced it was time for negotiations to go in a different direction.

Margaret Driscoll is now the School Committee chair, and she said last Friday in a statement that as the new year begins, “the School Committee remains committed to settling a comprehensive contract agreement with the teachers (MEA Unit A), as we have done with the paraprofessionals. At this time, the Committee believes that the best way to achieve this is through mediation. We suggested this approach to the MEA team on December 8, and again on December 19, offering both private mediation or mediation through the Department of Labor Relations. On December 22, we formally filed a request with the state Department of Labor Relations for fact-finding and mediation assistance. After nearly a year of negotiations, we think that a mediator will provide the approach and structure to move this important contract to completion more quickly. We have always, and will always, bargain in good faith, and we look forward to getting started in this phase of the process.”

Melrose Education Association members, however, feel the School Committee is “walking away” from talks over a new contract. The most recent bargaining agreement the teachers and the city had expired last year.

In a statement, the teachers said that Brodeur and the school board “have allowed contract negotiations to grind unnecessarily to a halt. Melrose educators are dismayed by the mayor’s obstinance to bridge small gaps in financial proposals and extremely disappointed in the School Committee’s lack of forward movement on language that wold improve working conditions, and ultimately learning conditions, in our schools.

“Mayor Brodeur’s and the Melrose School Committee’s intransigence and misrepresentation to the community not only disrespects and demeans Melrose’s educators, but also threatens to undermine the long-term quality of our public schools.

“Walking away form the bargaining table to pursue outside mediation is further evidence of the mayor’s and the School Committee’s unwillingness to take responsibility for managing the Melrose Public Schools.

“For these reasons, the MEA is voicing no confidence in Mayor Brodeur and the Melrose School Committee,” the teachers’ statement concluded.

On Wednesday morning, Driscoll and the School Committee released this:

“The School Committee understands the frustration being experienced by the Melrose Education Association; we are frustrated too, yet we remain committed to serving our children and families to the highest degree possible within what the district and city can afford. We are also committed to the collective bargaining process, and we’ve made many offers that we consider generous and fair in conjunction with providing accommodations for planning time and much more that mutually benefit both students and staff.

“In a small, almost totally residential city like Melrose, there are always difficult financial choices to be made and many collective bargaining units and non-union employees to compensate. Adding to those critical needs are the pressures of skyrocketing special education and transportation expenses, which are not only required, but which we as human beings honor and respect. Financial commitments have long-term implications for the district and city, and we remain steadfast in our efforts to find compensation solutions with the assistance of mediation to support a healthy and effective education system.”

The teachers have protested during these stalled negotiations on a few occasions.

Their not alone. Educators in communities such as Malden, Medford and Stoneham have done so as well.

Malden educators went on strike in October before reaching an agreement for a new contract.

Medford teachers delivered a vote of no confidence in Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and the Medford School Committee early last month before later settling their own negotiations with the School Committee.

Negotiations over education support professional contracts in Stoneham saw the Stoneham School Committee declare an impasse and file for mediation on Dec. 14.

The Melrose School Committee filed its request for mediation with the state on Dec. 22, according to Driscoll’s comments on Monday.