'This Strike Was About All Of Us': Marblehead Teachers Reach New Deal

UPDATED 8:35 p.m.

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The Marblehead Education Association celebrated gains in wages, paid family leave and the creation of a binding joint school safety task force while allowing the concessions made to eventually close the deal on a new contract that ends one of the longest teacher strikes in state history on Tuesday.

The MEA and School Committee announced shortly before 7 p.m. that school would be back in session for an early release day on the day before Thanksgiving — 20 days after students were last in the classroom on Nov. 8.

"The strike was hard on families," MEA co-President Jonathan Heller said at a news conference about 15 minutes after the ratification vote. "The strike was hard on our community. The strike was hard on us. But the strike was about all of us together, making a stand for the schools we want for Marblehead."

Heller said the final wage agreement calls for increases of 10.5 percent to 16 percent for teachers over the four-year deal and 15 days of paid family leave that can be combined with 45 days of accrued sick to equal 12 weeks.

"(Wednesday), students and staff return to schools that can better address safety issues," Heller said. "We'll return to schools where educators have better parental leave and better pay — making our district more desirable for attracting excellent educators while also retaining the great ones that we have here now.

"Paraprofessionals are closer to earning a living wage for performing essential jobs. We'll return to school where educators can get back to teaching our students without fear of retaliation for speaking out for a fair contract and fighting for the future of our community."

Heller said the wage increases, while short of the MEA's original demands, "push us in the right direction" of being competitive in the region and "puts us in a position where we can go up from this contract."

School Committee Chair Jennifer Schaeffner said the deal that the MEA accepted was essentially the "final" offer the School Committee had previously made.

School Committee member Sarah Fox said instead of the MEA paying to help offset the costs of the illegal strike to the town as part of the return-to-work agreement, the contract is not retroactive to the beginning of the school year and instead took effect on Tuesday upon ratification.

"We will need to dedicate those funds to offsetting the high cost of the strike," Fox said, adding that costs of police, student meals, court filing fees and other logistics amounted to "at least $20,000 a day" since the start of the strike.

Schaeffner credited MEA bargaining member Mike Giardi with helping bridge the gap between the union and School Committee on the final day to reach an agreement.

Tuesday marked the 11th day of the teachers' strike — matching the longest strike in state history during the Newton teachers' strike last winter. The Beverly teachers' strike ended after an agreement was reached later Tuesday night following 12 days of no classes.

• North Shore Teacher Strikes: 'All Of This Is Hurting Our Kids'

"Both the School Committee and the Association recognize the stress and hardship caused to our students and families during the school closures and we are committed to ensuring that the reopening of our schools will be a positive experience for our students and school community," the School Committee and MEA said in a joint statement announcing the tentative deal.

Heller said he saw enough movement on both sides to open the door to a compromise on Tuesday morning and that the day was spent working out the details of the deal — and return-to-work agreement assuring no retaliation — that passed the ratification vote of the full membership.

"It looked unanimous to me," he said of the MEA vote.

Heller said it will be under the purview of the superintendent and the School Committee to determine how the missed days of school will be made up. Under a plan that Superintendent John Robidoux introduced at a School Committee meeting last week, making up 10 days of school — with one of the days a converted professional development day from January — would include losing the Dec. 23 start of the holiday break, four days out of the February and April breaks, and ending school on June 23 if there are no further snow days.

The School Committee also had a news conference set for later Tuesday night.

(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.)