Teachers Strikes Continue in MA - Part 1

It's with Dan Ray. I'm WBZ Costs Radio.

All right, Welcome back everybody.

There are three school systems north of Boston that will be closed tomorrow. There will be no school in Beverly, no school in Gloucester, no school in marble Head. There are teachers strikes in all of those communities. I believe I'm correct when I'm saying that. If I'm not being corrected in a moment, I know there's a teacher strike

Welcome Jennifer. How are you?

Thanks to you and I'm good. I'm disappointed.

Yeah, you're disappointed, and you probably are dealing with a situation which is very, very difficult, not only for the school committee but for the residents of Marblehead. You were in negotiations until just a few minutes ago, as I understand that correct, that is correct.

Yes, we had our second day of mediation today.

We emerged unsuccessfully to the detriment first and foremost to our students of Marblehead. As a result, schools will be closed tomorrow and students will go a day without getting the education they're due because the Marblehead Education Association is about.

To go on an illegal strike.

Now are they technically on strike?

Because I know that at one point you folks had the foresight, meaning the school Committee and the town of marble Head, had the foresight to say was going to be.

A teacher's day? Or how did you care is it actually a strike tomorrow?

Or or do are they able to sort of avoid being in court because you folks were generous and said it was going to be like a teacher's special day or what?

Yeah?

What we yeah, Dan, what we did is so the marvel Ed Education Association voted on Friday to go on strike effective tomorrow, November twelfth, and as a result, the School Committee had an emergency meeting and we voted, based on a recommendation by our superintendent, to make tomorrow a professional development day slash training day for our teachers. So we're planned for plan, planning for them to come into training, hopefully.

They will, and then we'll see what happens on Wednesday.

Well, of course, I think the reason, if I'm correct and correct here, you folks had enough foresight to not put Marblehead parents in the position of having to wake up tomorrow morning at six point thirty and find out whether their kids at school or not. Basically gave your parents the weekend to try to find some alternative activities for the students.

Tomorrow, that's correct, That is correct, Austara will be a no school day for students.

Okay, so now just give me a Everyone knows Marblehead, many of us never get up to that neck of the woods.

It's one of the most beautiful communities in America as far as I'm concerned, certainly in New England. How many students are affected by this? How many students are in your school system? Approximately?

Well, thank you for the kind words about Marvelhead. I'm an almost lifelong Marbleheader. Myself grew up here and moved back when my children were school age, and would love to have you come up under better circumstances and have a visit. We have a little over twenty seven hundred students in our school district in Marblehead.

All right, and so you have I was sure, a high school and one junior high school and how many elementary schools? So you've got a system.

Correct? Yeah, we are pre K through twelfth grade. We have two elementary schools.

We have an upper elementary school grades four through six. We have what we call middle school, which you and I think of as a junior high school, and then we have a high school which is nine through twelve. We have five buildings.

Okay, so how long has it been since this union had a contract? How long have they been working without it?

So within our marvel Head Education Association, we have five separate what we call bargaining units, which are sort of categories of employees. Our custodians contract was expired June thirtieth of twenty twenty four, and the rest of the units, with the biggest one being our teachers unit, expired August thirty first, twenty twenty four, so a little over two months ago.

Okay. Now I'm assuming that the custodians are not prohibited from striking, that they don't have the legal consequences or are they a bargaining unit underneath the teachers' union. I just want to make sure I get it.

No, they are a separate unit, and we're not one hundred percent sure, but we're being told that they very well not go on strike. They will potentially be coming to work. We've heard some next stories about that and we'll find that out, I guess on tomorrow Wednesday.

But the teachers unions are prohibited from going on strike here in Massachusetts. Is there a coordination going on between the three teachers unions geographically? To me, it's a little interesting that you have Faverly, Marveled Head and Gloucester of very very centrally located geographically doing the same thing.

At the same time.

Yeah.

And the one commonality between these unions is they are all members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which is a statewide union organization. So we feel, you know, fairly sure that this is being done at the state level. And that's really what our concern is. Because we're three very different communities, we have different type where different. We're a town, the other two are cities. Our finances are different. They're

Okay, Now, let's let's focus in on Marvelhead. Sure, the teachers. The demand, as I understand that of the Marvelhead Education Association the teachers union, is they want a thirty three point nine percent increase for teachers. That is across how many years would that be?

That's across four years, four years.

So in effect, they're looking for really the equivalent of about eight percent per year for four years.

Correct, okay, correct, four and that is not affordable for us in Marblehead.

Right, you have offered a ten and a half percent increase plus a new step in salary scale, resulting in a twelve percent increase for two thirds of the teachers who are at the top of the pay scale, right.

Correct.

The committee offered would increase average salary to ninety six thousand dollars. That's the average salary with a maximum salary of one hundred and nine thousand dollars.

Yeah.

Actually, my understanding from my numbers today with our finance director is the average salary with our opera would be closer to just under one hundred thousand. It would be ninety nine thousand and change. So it would be a little bit higher than that, and then the highest paid would be one hundred and nine thousand. And those numbers are fairly close because most of our teachers are at the highest level largest about two thirds of our teachers are at the highest level.

How many teachers do you have in the union?

Just about three hundred three.

Hundred teachers, so the average is about one hundred thousand, and top scales one hundred and nine thousand. And also the number that the town has to deal with.

Under the teachers request or their demand, however you want to characterize it. I understand that it would cost an additional eleven and a half million dollars. Is that on an annual basis or over the term.

Of the contract, So that would what that means is because there are increases no matter whose contract we go with, they'll be increases every year. So at the based on the union's proposal, at the end of the four years, which would be twenty twenty eight, we would need an additional eleven little over eleven million dollars per year by the end of that contract to be meeting the obligation of the contract.

Okay, and what is what is the current amount that.

Let's say for the last school year twenty three to twenty four, what would be the correlating figure to the eleven you know you're saying you need an additional eleven point five What is the base.

Upon which that is built?

So right now, our salaries are about our total salaries are about thirty nine million dollars, little under forty million dollars, and this year our increases were about a millillion dollars more we needed this year compared to last year, which is pretty much what our increase in our inteo appropriation has been based on pretty slow anemic growth up here. So to have to have eleven million or even you know, two to three a year over four years, we just we just.

Don't have it. The town doesn't have it.

Yeah, So they're.

In effect asking for an additional eleven point five nine almost eleven point six million, and your offer, which includes some other benefits as well, would be four point eight nine million dollars almost five million dollars. So all right, again, Marblehead is not is not a metropolis like Boston or Worcester.

It's a it's a town.

What I'd like to do is I don't want you to negotiate this with people on air. I appreciate you calling in tonight and you're available for us, because I think so often and people don't understand the strictures that you know, I suspect that probably as a school committee member and you're the chair of the school committee. Folks make a nominal salary, if any salary at all.

Correct.

We are volunteers. There's no spe end or salery.

Okay, fair enough, okay, I just wanted to make clarify that. And you're trying to run a great school system, but.

You have to, you know, be within some relative means. It would be great if you could pay every teacher three hundred thousand dollars a year. I mean, well, you know, but yeah, I mean it would be wonderful, but you have some limitations, and in order to do this, you'd probably have to get a Prop. Two and a half override, so you almost would be in a situation where you would promise something that you might not be able to deliver.

That's correct.

I mean we are limited under Proposition two and a half in raising our tax levy each year. And some of the points you made earlier about Marblehead, we're very small, beautiful Sea coast community. We have a very very small commercial base of multiple small business owners. We don't have a large industrial complex or big mall or anything, you know,

And both failed, So it's a it's a bit of a hill to cline.

Yeah, my sense is that, and I'll give you an opportunity to respond to this business. Somebody who watches.

These these these teachers strikes from AFAR. I dealt with Ruth van Fuller of a Newton last winter. They were for like two and a half nearly three weeks, which.

Was horrific on their stems.

And again a community that that really is very generous with their teachers. It's frustrating from AFAR because I look at it and I know that the terminology that the union uses this is always for the children, but it's really not. It's about increases for the union members. That's the bottom line. And they so in effect they're holding the children kind of have a hostage because these kids

If you get my dress, well, I understand what you're saying. I am quite well taken. I think also, you know, when I speak, particularly for our older students, I mean they do.

They care about their teachers.

I mean, that's evident, and I've seen that with the students. They do care about their teachers. And we care about the teachers too, right, you know. So we want to be able to find a contract that we can all live with, and we're just hoping that they can come back to school. And as a matter of fact, we offered, both on Saturday and again today an option for them to We said, come back, come back to the classroom, come back to work.

We will take the folks on.

The bargaining team. There's fifteen members of the union on the as their bargaining leadership team. We will release them from their teaching duties or their work duties, will get coverage for them, and come back to the table and let's negotiate this all day, all night till we can get it done. But have everyone else back in the classroom. And they rejected that twice.

One final point, I just want to make sure that this is clear to people selective service in this country. The military draft ended in America in nineteen seventy two. None of these teachers were drafted by the Marblehead School Committee. They all wanted to teach in marble Head. They viewed this as a vocation, correct. They understood that.

They have not been dragooned to teach in marble Head. But they want to make sure that everybody makes one hundred thousand dollars and that's a number that frankly, I guess the town of Marblehead just cannot physically guarantee. So, boy, they put you in a tough position. I thank you for having well.

Thank you again.

And one thing I'll say quickly too, is that, you know, one of the things we've talked.

About is we do want to be competitive, right.

We want to be competitive with as tough as it is in our financial situation, with other communities on the

Be comfortable for us.

From looking from looking at the Department of Education teacher salary levels in Massachusetts, which I'm very familiar with, they seem to me to be a fairly pretty well compensated school staff. By the way, I notice you increase sickly by twenty percent. That's your offer, that's your proposal. What is the current sick leave of the one hundred and eighty day school year?

How many days can can a teacher be sick without without a question?

So teachers and my brother, the teachers are given fifteen sick days a year and those can roll over, right, so they can roll over up to one hundred and eighty days, so they can accumulate lots of sickly.

So this is they're at, yeah, and a twenty percent increation. You you're offering to get them to eighteen sick days per year.

Well, no, that's absol a little different. That's with our custodians.

What the what the teachers are asking for is not specifically sickly.

It's paid parental leave, is what they're asking for.

So they don't they want right now when parents are out having had you know, the child and their family, the birth reduction. There's multiple things they're entitled to. There's a federal family lead which is unpaid, and they can use their sickly if they've had a child for for.

You know, for that.

What they're asking for is to not have sickly count towards it. And what they were asking for was sixty days, six weeks. I've paid, sorry, twelve weeks of paid parentally.

So sixty days, sixty days.

Yeah, yeah, and that we just you know, we just that was not going to be affordable. So we offered ten and then.

We went up to twelve. So right now we're offering.

Twelve days paid parental leave. When they have a child birth redoption, then they could have their sick leave and then they would still be entitled even after that with the federal and the state additionally leave up to twelve weeks, but on a portion of it unpaid.

Gotcha, Okay, Jennifer Schefner, thank you so much for your time tonight. I really appreciate you. You've done the right thing. You've explained your position very well. I hope we hear from some from some folks in Marblehead or other communities. Thank you so much, appreciate it.

Thank you.

We're going to take a break here, robbing and kick one over. I'm just going to throw the number out. I'd love to get people's reaction. Jennifer is the chair of the school committee in Marblehead and presents yourself very well. Six one thirty six one seven nine free, one ten thirty. I frankly am getting tired of teacher strikes, illegal teacher strikes here in Massachusetts.

You can join me or you can debate me, whichever you want. Give us a call.

Now.

Back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night Side Studios. I'm WBZ News Radio.

I'm just going to take a quick break here, just for about a minute or so, and then we're going to get the news at the bottom of the hour, and then we'll go to phone calls. They want to thank Jennifer Schaefner. She's the chair of the Marblehead School Committee. How would you like to be in her position tonight? I mean, the bottom line is teachers strikes in Massachusetts are illegal. We saw what happened in Newton there, but other communities, the teachers Association.

You might think this doesn't affect you. But what happens in Marblehead, what happens in Newton, what happens in Beverly, what will happen, what's happening in Gloucester tomorrow is coming to a community near you soon. And I like teachers, Believe me, I had great teachers, and I'm sure all of us did. But the Teachers Union are leading the teachers down a path which is not a good path.

That's not what teaching is all about. People go into teaching as a as a vocation almost okay, and there's a lot of perks to being a teacher there, and the salary levels are pretty good. They're knocking on one hundred thousand dollars, they'll be up over one hundred and ten thousand dollars. And this is for a job that you have two months after in the summer. And the more that the Teachers Union push it, the more that communities are going to feel it, and they will develop

This is a problem and it needs to be addressed. Please feel free join the conversation. Six one seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. I'm making my feelings known. If you agree with me, I'd like to hear from you. If you don't agree with me, I'd love to debate you on it. It's as simple as that.

Okay, we can have a friendly conversation. We can disagree about about some of this. But teachers' unions, particularly in Massachusetts, are they just killed the MCAST graduation requirement. I guarantee you they're going to try to make strikes legal in Massachusetts. And at that point Katie barred the door. Six one seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty tonight, it's Marblehead, Gloucester and Beverly next week, next month,

It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.

Now we are talking about three simultaneous teacher strikes in three communities which are right up there on the northeast corner of the state, and I have to believe that there's some coordination, as we alluded to with the Massachusetts Teachers Association. My question to you is if you have kids, uh and those kids are in school, and you were to find out tomorrow morning that your school was gone, your teaches you and you're going on strike, what would you do. I lost a lot of.

Confidence in teachers' unions about I don't know, thirty years or so ago. One of my children was in grade school and there were two classes that were combined.

And again this is an experiment. I guess that we were anxious to at least consider one of the teachers had just had a child and obviously had some home

I'm good, Yes, a little bit find it?

No be a favorite, Bob. I don't know. Are you on a headset or you want a speakerphone. I'm having a little bit of difficulty hearing you.

Okay, how about now? Can you hear me now much better?

What did what did you change? What did what did you change?

Well? I was supposed to myself years and years ago, and maybe I.

Asked you what what did you change? So that I can hear you? I want to know the next time I hear that. I want to be able to get what did you get off a headset?

What will you want if close to the receiver on the phone.

Oh, that is always critical because you know what, Bob, if I go like this with my mouthpiece, if I take my mouthpiece and.

Put it over here, you don't hear me as well? Do you want to bring it back to that.

That's the key, you know, I got I got a professional headset on, and you got a phone. So let's try to work together because I want to hear everything you have to say.

Go right ahead, Bob, Thanks, thanks for being a good sport.

Go ahead, good thing.

Well, I think that I'm back when I was teaching, and that goes back almost forty years ago, and I was in a pub schools near Massachusetts. The parent union, the NCA, they've had a pro choice platform. Now that doesn't make sense.

I mean, you talk about children, children and children, and yet the statewide union is thing have an abortion you know.

I just I find that, Well.

Abortion is really irrelevant, Bob, to to what we're discussing tonight.

I mean, is that I think? Is that? Is that what you said? I'm still having difficulty hearing you.

Oh sorry about that, Dan, I'll just send it right now.

But well, I'm just saying that abortion has nothing to do with what we're talking about today. When we're talking about parents across well the three communities of Massachusetts who are going to have to provide for alternative.

Care for their kids tomorrow. These would be kids anywhere from kindergarten to grade twelve and uh, and it's it's you know, they begin the school year, the residents of the community pay taxes which which they is assumed that their kids are going to receive a good education and

Uh and then bravo, it has.

To be finding arbitration.

Uh.

That the statement, and you cannot strike. And if you striking, your out of the picket line, we're gonna we're gonna bring and we're gonna put you all in jail. I mean, I I think it's that's got to the point where I think that has to be done.

In my opinion, I think you're hitting a nail right on the head Dan, what you said right now, I mean absolutely, I mean, there's there's just a kind of mean it's around and it's gotta be more focused. And the point you make are great points about you know, being there for education the purpose of education, not you know, it makes like a labor stand on this, you know.

So yeah, absolutely, absolutely, well, I appreciate it. And again I just I wanted to get you away from the other subject because that's not the subject that we're talking about tonight. So thanks for coming back and talking about the strike and again what I consider to be the unfairness not only to the students, but to the taxpayers

What's the different?

Thank you, Bob. I appreciate you call, Talk to you soon. Thank you, appreciate it very much. Daryl is up in Canada? Do they have teacher strikes in Canada?

Darryl? They actually have congratulations on Referends Day as well, by the way, thank you, and uh, but they actually have bus drivers strikes. Teach the strikes. And I just love that comment you mentioned about July and August. Yeah, because your guests mentioned that normal teachers across North America get the summer off.

Yeah, and they should.

Have their union representatives whenever they're coming up on a negotiation. Uh, you know what the contract is expiring, uh, maybe a year out say well, we're going to start the negotiation and we're gonna we're gonna stop it before school starts.

And then the following summer.

If they don't finish it up, then they have to wait until the next summer to to uh, to have negotiations. They should not be negotiating during the school year. It's as simple as that. And they should be that. Teacher strikes are illegal, but there has to be some some teeth in this as far as I'm concerned.

Darryl, Well, that's correct. And at the same time, your guest prior to the specialist or one of the school board.

She's of the chair of the school committee.

Yeah, she had mentioned about king will leave possibly yep, and up in Canada, if somebody has a pregnancy, they can actually the husband and or the wife can take a year off on unemployment.

Yeah. Well that's wonderful, I mean, and that's that's wonderful, but that cost has to.

Be back to This goes back to what I was mentioning. But the cumun will leave.

Yep.

If you can accumulate that and you're trying to do a budget year to year, then that budget gets thrown right out of whack. And if you have a whole bunch of people that are actually in that predicament, then you leave half. You might lose half your staff.

Conceivab But yeah, I would call it a I call it more of a situation than a predicament. But that's that's that's a little euphemistic. So yeah, it's a it's going to happen, you know, when you have young people who are coming out of college and becoming teachers and

Well, it's all about the kids, and it's about responsibility.

Well they will tell you it's all about the kids, but it really comes down to I mean, what.

A teachers make in Canada. Do you do you have any idea? Do you have I do not know well down here, down here in Massachusetts, most teachers, most teachers in any of the larger school systems. I'm making upwards or in excess of one hundred.

Thousand dollars a year.

And that's US dollars, that is US dollars.

That is correct, is correct, So I mean it's it's topic. Yeah, Thank thanks Darrel. Always great to hear from you. Thank you so much.

And any any more questions about Canada and the teacher stuff down the road, let me know.

I will, I promise you, I will thank you.

I'll check out the salary for you.

Okay, thanks, doctor, you soon, good night. I've gotta take very quick break here. Coming right back on Night's side. I'm more than willing to take this into the next hour if you want to. I also want to talk about the dilemma that the Democratic Party has now in a view of what happened six nights ago, the re election of President Trump. We're going to talk about that

We've invited, by the way, they headed the mass Teachers Association on his name is Max Page on several occasions, and they have they have declined. He's he's he's welcome to come in here any night and tell me how unfair it is the teachers are being treated in Massachusetts or whatever he wants to say. We'll be back on night's side. I got a couple of Steves and a Michael Hare. Got a little bit of room for you six one seven, two five, four thirty or six one

This, Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World night Side Studios on w b Z the news radio.

All right, back to the calls, we go, well, we're gonna go next to let me get Steven Merrimack, New Hampshire, Steve next on Knights.

I go ahead, Hi, Dan hik arm good.

Your thoughts on what's going on a little.

Self is unbelievable. You know the you know, I do agree with the binding, arbitration and negotiating during the summer, which is the correct way to handle it. That's absolutely the there's no other way to do it. But I will say that you mentioned Newton. I believe that Andover had the same problem, and one of the union officials said, quote unquote, we got everything we wanted. You know, that's not how negotiations work. A lot of these teachers don't

Well, these teachers, now.

These it is not uncommon. I don't know what it is in New Hampshire, assume it is quite different. But in Massachusetts it's not uncommon for teachers in in you know, some of the nicer communities, to making eighty ninety one hundred, one hundred and ten thousand dollars a year for you know, for a job that again runs from September to June. And I think what they should just say is okay, okay.

I agree with you completely. One thing I will say is on the legality issue, the only thing that happens to them is the union gets fined. They're prepared to pay that fine. And I think that's what happened six months ago. When you know Newton and andover.

I'm sure that's what happened. I'm sure that's what happened. And of course then nobody to teach the teachers do is go up a little bit. So, but that's another story, Steve. I appreciate what you calling. Thank you much, Thank you very much. Let's keep rolling here. I'm going to go to Alan, New hamps We got more interest here in New Hampshire than in Massachusetts.

Go ahead, Al, Hey, Dan, always great conversation. I'd like to make a quick point. Most state constitutions, right, they trade taxpayers, you know, rights for the common good. So the taxpayer gives up some rights for the common good in this case. In these cases, what I find is the public unions violate that common that whole spirit of common good. And you know, especially teachers use unions use

There's only so much money they have.

But as they say, I think the problem much more, at least down here, is what's going on in h with.

The teachers unions.

And the teachers unions have figured it out that they basically can extort the school committees and generally get a It's going to maybe take them a few days or a couple of weeks in the case of Newton or Endover.

But this stuff has to stop and there has to be some politicians willing to take on the teachers unions. Well, hopefully a bunch of politicians to take on the teacher's unions say hey, look, this just can't happen. You know, enough people are leaving Massachusetts now, eventually the entire tax base is going to leave Massachusetts. This is an out

You're a teacher. You're a teacher. You do a great job. It's a wonderful profession. You can become a teacher probably thirty thirty five, forty years and you'll retire with a great pension. You don't get a million dollars a year as a teacher, but one hundred thousand dollars that's that's a pretty good salary in this day and age, and it has been for a while.

Right, and I think we forget that. This are most state constitutions, the taxpayer really has rights that they are not using, and they're not using it through their legislature.

Well, if they don't turn legislators out, that's that's the ultimate right.

They have the right to vote.

So you know you're getting into a political argument that I want to list late in the conversation.

Don't want to go down the road.

What happens is you get people who are in in office there they don't have challenges and it works to the advantage of the teachers' union. So anyway, I'm gonna let you run out because I'm flat out of time, and I will tell folks, I'm more than willing to continue with this into the next hour because I think it's a critical topic. And if you're not interested in it,