Nearly 12,000 students have been out of the classroom for more than a week in Newton as teachers remain on strike and fines continue to pile up since skipping class for the picket line is illegal in Massachusetts.
The Newton Teachers Association has been fined $375,000 for canceling six consecutive school days during the strike which began Jan. 19. A Middlesex judge ruled Friday fines will continue if a deal with the School Committee is not reached by Sunday night, albeit at a much lower rate.
Judge Christopher K. Barry-Smith initially ordered fines to double in value each day that the strike continued but lowered that rate to $50,000 a day if an agreement is not in place by 8 p.m. Sunday.
“My concern is that if I keep escalating the coercive fines, it will undermine the collective bargaining that’s supposed to be the solution,” Barry-Smith said during a hearing in Middlesex Superior Court.
An attorney representing the Newton Teachers Association argued that the School Committee has not made any effort to come to the table with a “sincere intent to reach an agreement,” while the attorney for the School Committee countered that bargaining doesn’t need to come at the expense of taking students out of school.
Newton South High School English teacher Kelly Henderson, in a briefing Friday evening, reiterated that teachers are requesting a “modern, humane parental leave, mental health supports for our kids and a living wage for our behavioral therapists and aides.”
“The judge made it very clear that the only thing that’s going to get our kids back in the classroom is bargaining, and we agree,” Henderson said. “As of right now, the NTA is ready and willing and able to bargain 24 hours a day until a deal is reached. … In the next 48 hours, there are no minutes that your educators are going to spend doing anything other than getting kids back into the classroom on Monday.”
In a Thursday evening update, the School Committee highlighted, “Agreeing to the union’s demands on the table would require layoffs of 60 employees within a year, and another 60 within the following five years.”
An updated analysis on the latest proposals showed that the union’s requests would total $100.2 million, a significant difference from the School Committee’s $45.4 million, according to a spreadsheet posted by the district Friday morning.
Newton teachers earn an average of $93,000 per year, an amount that ranks in the top quartile in the Commonwealth. But teachers on the picket line say among their big fights is increasing wages for unit C professionals like teacher’s assistants and behavior therapists.
The starting pay for a unit C professional is listed on the Newton Public Schools website as just over $28,000 a year for full-time employees under the most recent contract.
“We are asking the NTA to compromise and collaborate. The School Committee has made multiple revisions and restructured its proposals in response to NTA requests,” the School Committee said in a Friday afternoon statement. “By contrast, the NTA has not moved from its original positions on major issues. We are also asking them to focus on the negotiations and meaningful discussions with real compromise and partnership.”
The previous 3-year contract expired Aug. 31, and Mayor Ruthanne Fuller along with the City Council and School Committee had pressed the teachers union not to go on strike. Newton is the ninth-largest school district in the state.
City voters turned down a $9.2 million property tax increase that would have supported city services and schools last March. Teachers have held various rallies urging the mayor to fund the schools properly and not to rely on voters approving a proposition to do so.
Hundreds of students, teachers, parents and community members at large gathered in the rain in front of City Hall on Friday, continuing their daily rallies. Another is scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
Ryan Normandin, a math and physics teacher at Newton South High School, said he doesn’t find it relevant whether the union has enough funds to cover the growing fines.
“We will not go back until we have a fair contract for our students and for ourselves,” he told reporters Friday evening.
