'At Their Wit's End': North Shore Teachers Decry School 'Crisis'

BEVERLY, MA — A coalition of North Shore teachers looking to shine a light on what they call a "crisis" in schools that includes understaffing, low pay and "untenable" safety concerns pleaded their case for more funding in pending collective-bargaining agreements at a public forum in Beverly on Thursday.

Hundreds turned out from across the North Shore as several teacher unions — including Beverly, Marblehead and Salem — enter the final days of their current contracts with gaps remaining when it comes to compensation, family leave and classroom preparation time.

"Educators are at their wit's end," Marblehead High math teacher Mike Giardi said. "Our colleagues are being asked to do more with less. The safety issues are untenable for both students and staff. We now have countless vacancies a week before school starts. We have been committed to addressing these problems with a sense of urgency before these crises become catastrophes.

"Yet, our schools' management teams refuse to work collaboratively with educators to solve the problems we've identified. We're trying to solve these problems at the bargaining table. We need safe and healthy schools for our students. We need a safe and healthy school for ourselves."

Contract talks in Marblehead were abruptly cut off this week when the Marblehead Education Association walked away from the table four hours into a negotiating session, citing the School Committee Bargaining Subcommittee's unwillingness to involve teachers in the "decision-making process" when it comes to dealing with what it called the "problems" facing the district.

Marblehead and Beverly unions are among those who voiced concerns about the lack of staffing — and the safety concerns that result — amid escalating special education needs of students in recent years.

"There is not enough staff in our schools to provide the required services to all students," said Laura Newton, an elementary speech-language pathologist in Beverly. "If parents and the community knew how badly students legally required IEPs were being violated, they would be appalled.

"While there's a crisis in all of our special education departments, staffing cuts are impacting
all students as they lose the ability to access elective classes like art and library. Our schools and profession are being dismantled brick by brick, and the elected officials of our communities cannot stand idly by."

A coalition of teacher unions called the North Shore Educators United cited the "limitations of Proposition 2.5" amid an inflationary environment for not allowing school funding growth — which largely comes from annual increases in property taxes — to keep pace with district needs.

"Students are the ones who pay at the end of the day because of this broken system," the NSEU said in a statement.

(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.)