STA Continues to Petition School Committee to Negotiate a "Fair and Equitable" Contract

More than 40 teachers packed the television studios Tuesday night for the March 22 School Committee meeting, many wearing black buttons with orange writing that read "Stoughton Teachers United," as school officials and the Stoughton Teachers Association (STA) continue to negotiate a contract.

For the third consecutive School Committee meeting, STA representatives read a petition to the School Committee to negotiate a contract with the STA that "attracts and retains highly qualified teachers to Stoughton" and reaffirms their "determination to achieve a contract which fairly and equitably acknowledges [their] contributions to the Stoughton Public Schools."

Each meeting was well-attended by STA members, but Tuesday's meeting drew the most STA support.

John Gunning, a seventh grade social studies teacher at the , read a petition signed by teachers at the OMS, and Stephanie Paquette, a fourth grade teacher at the , read a petition representing those teachers.

Before reading the OMS petition, Gunning said that the middle school is now ranked in the top-third among Massachusetts schools and that the school boasted 40 perfect MCAS scores in the last testing year.

Gunning said teachers at the OMS have given time and money to help achieve this success. He said teachers have worked non-contractual hours to chapperone field trips, student dances and talent shows and have offered their "free time" for initiatives like the "Snap Program," something OMS Principal Wayne Hester created for students in need of a "pat or push" to succeed.

He also said a recent poll of OMS teachers revealed that they spend anywhere from $100 to, in some cases, more than $400 of their own money for classroom materials.

"In what other profession do people pay for supplies for work?," Gunning asked. After 15 months of negotiations, Gunning said teachers were looking for a "fair and equitable" contract.

In what has arguably been their most public statements in response to these STA petitions, members of the school committee congratulated the OMS teachers for their work in boosting student success.

Chairman Tom Colburn said the School Committee takes the contract negotiations "very seriously" and said it is a priority to achieve a "fair and equitable" contract.

Colburn said middle school is a "challenging" age group to be teaching and that a lot of progress has been made there. He also credited West School teachers, who have a high percentage of students who speak English as a second language, for making "remarkable progress" in dealing with their unique situation.

Dr. Ural said he has been receiving numerous postcards asking for step increases, the salary increments teachers receive in their early years as they gain experience and become professionals, to be paid. He asked if other members have been getting these postcards and they indicated they had.

As negotiations continue, the STA said the district has failed to pay step increases and present a "fair contract," so the STA has asked its members to "" like running certain afterschool clubs or partaking in school fairs.

During a phone interview Monday afternoon, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marguerite Rizzi said she couldn't get into the particulars of the contract negotiations, but said there is a "great deal of motivation to get to an agreement."

There are no deadlines in the negotiations, but "sooner is better than later," Dr. Rizzi said. "It is very difficult for all concerned to keep having this conversation and for the teachers to have the uncertainty of not knowing what their contract is going to be."

The next negotiation session is Tuesday, March 29.

"We look forward to making progress," Colburn said at Tuesday's meeting. "We understand the significance of it."

View a copy of the Gibbons School petition, read at the February 8 School Committee Meeting in the media gallery above. Click on "View Gallery" to see it.