Marblehead Teachers Union Rejects Latest District Contract Proposals

MARBLEHEAD, MA — Monday's short bargaining session appeared to show few signs of closing the gap between the Marblehead Education Association and the School Committee Bargaining Sub-Committee on a new collective bargaining agreement as teachers close in on a month of working without a contract.

The previous contract expired on Aug. 31.

School Committee Chair Jennifer Schaeffner said in a School Committee statement that the Bargaining Sub-Committee presented a proposal that she said included increases to the wage proposal, parental leave and additional language for the Joint Committee on School Safety.

"However, it did not result in an agreement," Schaeffner said. "The MEA did not make any responses to the offered package proposal and noted they will take it under consideration."

She said the MEA notified the School Committee in advance of Monday's session that bargaining time would be limited on Monday with the bargaining session lasting about 90 minutes.

MEA President Jonathan Heller early Tuesday afternoon issued a statement on behalf of the union rejecting each of the new proposals and saying: "The School Committee remains intent on dividing our membership and intensifying the existing staffing crisis in our schools."

Wages and the teachers' binding role in a proposed School Safety Joint Committee have been two of the bigger sticking points in the talks.

On the new School Committee proposals, the MEA statement said the district's wage proposals remain insufficient in comparison to neighboring districts and in light of inflation increases since the last deal, and that its proposal for the Safety Committee lacks the commitment to follow through on all recommendations of Committee members, making the committee more advisory than able to produce enforceable action items.

"They refused to agree to language that says this committee 'will' do anything or be held accountable to the community," Heller said.

On wages, Heller said the district proposal amounts to a 6 percent increase (up from 4 percent) over the course of three years for most teachers, and 9 percent for those at the top of the scale.

"This wage offer would only exacerbate the catastrophic turnover our schools are experiencing and keep Marblehead educator salaries significantly behind other districts in the region," Heller said. "Inflation alone during our last contract was 16.9 percent.

"Marblehead Public Schools' salaries were already lagging behind our neighbors and peer districts due to chronic underfunding, and this financial offer is effectively a pay cut. Even if the Committee offered us 9 percent in the first year of this deal, when accounting for projected inflation in 2024, their offer would not even make up for half of the erosion of our wages since 2021."

The School Committee said following the last bargaining session that the MEA was seeking what is effectively a 40 percent increase over three years for many teachers and staff and that increase is not feasible amid what it called "the fiscal reality of the town of Marblehead."

An apparent scheduling error postponed the previous negotiating session last week, only adding more acrimony to the troubled contract talks.

Heller called that postponement part of the district's "bad-faith tactics" and charged that the School Committee was showing an "incomprehensible resistance to any common-sense proposals" when it came to school safety and the "social-emotional needs of our youngest learners, as well as the mass exodus of school staff."

The next bargaining session is scheduled for Oct. 1.

(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.)