No Public, No Entire Stoughton School Committee at Jan. 27 Contract Session

The entire Stoughton School Committee and the public won't be attending the Monday, Jan. 27 negotiation meeting after the Stoughton Teachers Association didn't want the public to attend, citing the contract ground rules. 

Stoughton School Committee chairman Joyce Husseini offered to have the public and the school committee to attend Monday night. When the teachers wanted only the school committee present, Husseini said herself and George Dolinsky will continue to represent them at the table and report back to the entire school commitee

Andrea Pires, the Stoughton Teachers Association president, said in her response that the ground rules say the negotiations should be closed the public. Pires had requested the entire school committee to present.

In her response to Husseini, Pires said, "According to our ground rules, negotiation sessions will be closed to the general public. As you have stated many times, negotiations should be conducted at the negotiation table."

Pires said in an email she wanted the entire school committee present so "that we may have a conversation about how both sides are viewing the proposals and to clear up any misinformation on either side."

Husseini said the committee is being informed by their negotiating team.

"Not only is the full committee informed of the discussion of every negotiating session, every piece of paper supplied by the union is distributed and discussed, and the full committee participates in shaping strategies and offers," she said in an email statement. "The union has chosen to speak publicly on the status of negotiations at five consecutive school committee meetings and has already used these opportunities to address the full committee and to make their plea to settle the contract. Yet recent negotiating sessions have been spent on extraneous issues not related to the contract offers at the insistence of the union bargaining team."

At the school committee meeting, the teachers association had presented petitions, calling for contract negotiations be completed. Pires wanted to speak at the Jan. 14 meeting, but she said was denied the opportunity.

"I have granted their request in the past so that the teachers could present their petitions as had been done in the previous contract negotiations, but there is nothing that grants the union the right to be on the school committee agenda," said Husseini in an email after the Jan. 14 meeting.  "Each side has a bargaining team and regular meetings and a process by which they inform their committee or membership.  The union has not agreed to negotiate in public so I am not sure what the purpose of them appearing at a public meeting to discuss the contract would accomplish."