No Agreement in Stoughton Teachers' Contract Talks

A large crowd of teachers showed up for the second straight Stoughton School Committee meeting to voice their displeasure of not having reached a contract agreement and with nothing resolved in the dispute.
The next formal negotiation is set for Dec. 11. In the meantime, the teachers plan on attending the meetings.
'We'll be back at the (next school committee) meeting," said Stoughton Teachers Association president Andrea Pires.
She also said there is rumbling from some of the union members about going on strike if the contract situation isn't resolved.
"More and more people are talking about it," said Pires. "We want to avoid that. I never thought it would come that." School committee chairman Joyce Husseini said she believed there is a no strike clause in the teachers' contract. She is hopeful the dispute can end shortly, but sides are deadlocked over compensation issues. The Stoughton school department put a new pay raise schedule in effect, which teachers claim is a pay cut. 
"Your proposal to obliterate the teacher salary schedule and replace it with an experimental system would further exacerbate the turnover crisis in our schools," said Pires. "You know that teachers' salaries are not the problem; you just returned over $780,000 to the town. Your radical proposal would cause even more teachers to leave the schools and cause parents to consider withdrawing their children from our schools."
Husseni called Pires' response "a little irresponsible."
The school committee is offering a step-increase plan, which according to the chairman, increases the starting salary of a new teacher by 10 percent ranging to 1 percent for the top step.
Petitions from the Hansen School and from the Gibbons School asking the school administration to settle the contract in the teachers' favor were presented.
Both sides are talking, but they differ about the amount of time they should take, and bringing mediation in to settle the issue.
Dr. Marguerite Rizzi, the superintendent of schools, said she would schedule regular meeting with Pires. She offered to have the teachers union president attend a mediation seminar Friday.
Pires declined the offer.
"We have been meeting when we have issues," said Pires. The two sides are scheduled to meet Thursday.
Pires called the situation "dysfunctional" and said it "must stop."
Rizzi said both sides need to realize they are on the same side, and both want to provide the best education for the students.
"It's like we are Siamese twins separating," said Rizzi. "We have to work as one." 
Rizzi said she offered to have Pires attend a state mediation seminar Friday, but she declined to attend.
"I didn't want to take a day away from the kids," said Pires. "I try not to leave the classroom."
Pires said the teachers' association was concerned that more than $700,000 was returned to the town in unused special funds.
"Teachers are concerned that the school committee returned over three-quarters of a million dollars to the town when we cannot find aids for the classroom to meet the critical needs of our students, " said Pires.
Husseini said the schools have to give the money back to the taxpayers if they don't use it. 
"The dysfunction must stop," said Pires "We both want what is best for the students and Stoughton."
Husseini said the school committee and administration have reached contract deals with the other unions, and she's hoping that an agreement can be reached with the teachers.
"There are a number of things we have reached agreement on," she said.