Cole Teachers Feel Relief after Court Victory over Class Sizes

The 17 teachers at Archie R. Cole Middle School that will be getting additional pay after a judge upheld an arbitration award last week say that they tried to avoid the grievance process before the contract dispute ended up in court.

In a statement released by the assistant executive director of National Education Association Rhode Island, Jay Walsh, the 17 affected teachers at the school said the issue was about class sizes.

“Appropriate class sizes are vitally important to creating the best learning conditions for students,” the statement read. “The East Greenwich Education Association and East Greenwich School Committee have mutually agreed to class size limits for more than twenty-five years. The District has honored the same class sizes since Archie R. Cole Middle School adopted the middle school model. Last year the district unilaterally assigned too many students to seventeen different classrooms and was unwilling to find a solution to the jam packed classes.”

The teachers said that they were assigned more students than what is allowed under their union contract. The district contended that the language referred to part-time teachers. Teachers were victorious in arbitration and were awarded additional pay.

Superior Court Associate Justice Allen P. Rubine affirmed the arbitrator’s award last week. School officials said the unbudgeted salary that must now be paid “jeopardizes the funding of the education program across the entire district as well as the district’s ability to sustain the innovative instructional model currently in place at Cole Middle School.”

But teachers said if the result is less crowded students, it will benefit students, which was the impetus for the grievance in the first place.

“Going forward, the East Greenwich Education Association is optimistic the School Committee will honor what both parties have mutually agreed to for the benefit of students. The East Greenwich Education Association is relieved that Judge Rubine confirmed the arbitrator’s award indicating the East Greenwich School Committee violated the mutually agreed to class sizes.”

The district does not plan to appeal Judge Rubine’s ruling.