'Outstanding Contract': Beverly Mayor Touts City's Efforts To Reach New Teacher Deal

BEVERLY, MA — Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill on Friday insisted the city has made a "good faith" effort to reach a deal on a new collective-bargaining agreement with teachers and school staff that includes an "outstanding contract" offer.

In a letter to the school community shared with Patch, Cahill said the $5.7 million in new money budgeted for Beverly Schools is a "historic investment" that will greatly increase the district's per-pupil expenditures and includes a contract offer that is comparable to those recently accepted in Danvers and Salem.

"What we have offered is an outstanding contract that moves our school district forward," Cahill said. "Spending more would undermine our ability to deliver the many other critical services our residents depend on across city government, including senior and veteran services, public safety, public health, libraries and parks, as well as the education our children need."

Cahill presented this chart that is intended to show the proposed Beverly contract in comparison to those in Salem and Danvers:

Contract negotiations have remained largely at a standstill for nearly two months since teachers began the new school year with an expired deal. The Beverly Teachers Association voted two weeks ago to implement a "work-to-rule" order in which staff will only perform contractual-obligated duties during school hours on certain days as a way to demonstrate how much they otherwise go above and beyond for the district and their students.

The School Committee released a statement to Patch on Oct. 16 saying that "continued uncompromising demands from the BTA" had left little hope of a direction forward in the talks
without outside help and that it was looking to seek state involvement amid the impasse.

Under the impasse declaration, the state Department of Labor Relations would assign a state-selected third party to assist in mediating the dispute.

The BTA responded to the move, saying that the city is "exploiting staff members" and
that it would not compromise on its core wage demands.

"The School Committee has not budged from the wage proposal that it presented to us last spring and appeared unmoved by our members' impassioned pleas to acknowledge that the city of Beverly is exploiting staff members who work with our community's most vulnerable children," the union said. "The BTA is holding firm on our wage benchmarks for both units."

Cahill publicly addressed paraprofessionals and teachers on Friday, contending that "we have listened to you intently and in good faith."

"I urge you to recognize the good faith represented in our offer and to come to an agreement on a new contract," he said, "so that you can continue to do what you have been doing so well all along — provide our Beverly Public school children a truly great education."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)