Andover School Committee Violated Labor Law: MA Labor Department

ANDOVER, MA — The Andover School Committee violated state labor law through two actions by then-South Elementary School Principal Tracey Crowley in late 2019, the Department of Labor Relations found.

In a decision issued Monday, hearing officer Sara Skibski Hiller ordered the district to cease further violations, to remedy one violation and to post signed copies of a notice to employees that it violated state law and will not do so again.

Hiller dismissed the majority of the Andover Education Association's allegations, but found that two actions by Crowley violated labor law:

1. She "told bargaining unit members that she knew they were talking about her at their meeting and told a bargaining unit member that she knew the member had said negative things about her at a union meeting."
2. She "rescinded her decision to remove a written reprimand from a bargaining unit member’s file in retaliation for engaging in concerted, protected activity."

The allegations date to late 2019, when the union filed a complaint in response to a hostile work environment investigation at South Elementary School opened by the district, alleging the investigation was an attempt to chill union participation. The investigation itself was not found to be a labor law violation, but two actions by the principal around the same time were.

Following an early-Nov. meeting of the union, Crowley violated labor law when she made comments suggesting she knew what was said at the meeting, creating "an unlawful impression of surveillance," Hiller wrote.

In the other violation, Crowley reversed a plan to remove a written reprimand from a union bargaining unit member's record, after the member complained about questioning over the same early-Nov. meeting.

The Department of Labor Relations ordered the district to remove the reprimand from the record.

But the investigation itself was the result of a "legitimate managerial need" of the School Committee and the district's investigator did not coercively interrogate the bargaining unit members, Hiller found. The investigation was initiated following "an anonymous letter outlining allegations of a hostile work environment," which accused bargaining unit members of calling people nicknames and making derogatory statements toward students, staff and administrators.

The investigator substantiated the allegations and the superintendent sent letters of reprimand to the employees in question.

Hiller also dismissed allegations that Assistant Superintendent Paul Szymanski was unlawfully surveilling union activity when he stood outside during a union rally over the investigation and that Crowley was surveilling union activity when she interrupted a morning meeting to say that classes would soon begin.

In a release Thursday, the School Committee said it had complied with the orders in the ruling.

"South School Union Activists were vindicated by the department of Labor Relations," the union said Thursday. "The Andover School Committee violated the law by interfering with protected activity. There is another set of hearings to be scheduled on additional counts of probable cause against The Committee, and although the wheels of justice turn slowly, we continue to stand with our members at South."

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.