More than 20 parents joined the Norwood Elementary teachers Friday morning in an act of solidarity, wearing school t-shirts and holding up signs calling for an end to arbitration and a contract in …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account by clicking here.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
|
More than 20 parents joined the Norwood Elementary teachers Friday morning in an act of solidarity, wearing school t-shirts and holding up signs calling for an end to arbitration and a contract in the teacher’s favor.
For more than a month Norwood teachers have united before school on Friday mornings to hold up signs in front of the school.
“We realize that the teachers are the ones fighting for our kids,” Karen Gundlach said.
Her son attended Norwood and is now a freshman at Pilgrim, but Gundlach said that as part of the Norwood community she still felt it was important for her to come out in support of the teachers. Her biggest worry is class sizes, arguing that classrooms with smaller enrollment help to improve education. She believes it is “ridiculous” to have a traditional and special needs student count as the same when the latter would obviously require more attention from the teacher.
Sean Byrne, who had a special needs child attend Norwood, said the teachers were “amazing” and the family was treated very well.
“It hurts to see the school committee expecting those students to have to learn in a crowded classroom or move around schools,” Byrne said.
Byrne’s wife, Tarin Byrne, is the incoming PTA president but is currently in the hospital fighting leukemia. He was at the rally to represent his family.
“We take this so seriously; we were stuffing envelopes just the other day in her hospital room,” Byrne said. “We are frustrated with how the school committee has been treating our teachers. They’ve walked out when parents are speaking and that’s not getting us anywhere.”
He believes that the school committee is walking away from the table and not trying to find a middle ground. He said it should never come to arbitration, but it has because the committee is “stubborn” and won’t give teachers the tools they need to best do their job.
“I hope this resolves quickly,” Gundlach said. “It’s affecting our kids and we can’t seem to move forward because of the behavior of the school committee.”
“Parents support us and want to stand with us throughout this process,” Pauline Pinto, 6th grade teacher and union representative, said.
Deidre Pesola, also a 6th grade teacher for Norwood, said parents recognize the hard work teachers put in every day and understand that like any other employee they deserve a contract.
One mother at the rally, who wanted to remain anonymous, believes there is a bit of a double standard when it comes to contracting certain employees. She works as a nurse, under a contract, and said if there wasn’t a contract in place nurses or doctors wouldn’t work until an agreement is resolved. She believes the teachers are being forced to “jump through hoops” any other contracted employee wouldn’t have to.
“Teachers are just as important as nurses or doctors, but they don’t get the respect they deserve,” she said. “Even without a contract they come into work every day and they use their free time for grading, planning or meeting with parents still. They still do so much on their free time, and that’s without all the extras.”
Eugene Nadeau, School Committee Chair, was at the school previous to the rally and watched silently throughout. With around 50 people altogether, Nadeau said the small protest was “very peaceful.”
“I wanted to see this for myself,” he said, “and not just hear someone’s story of it.”
He finds it “discouraging” that teachers remain with “work to rule,” and although he would like to see a contract in place he doesn’t think “90 percent of people really know what’s going on.”
“It’s a very one-sided view, all coming from the union, and people are getting the wrong impression. This has gone on for too long.”
Warwick Teacher Union President George Landrie said, “It’s evident that parents stand with us and we greatly appreciate the support. Parents clearly see the non-support of the school committee members.”
When questioned, Superintendent Philip Thornton said he hopes both sides can move forward in contract negotiations.
2 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
FedUp
Mr. Nadeau, could you please explain your statistics? 90%, I find that to be grossly inflated. Parents are not only hearing the union's position but also the position held by the SC. I have emailed the entire School committee with questions to be shot down. Teachers are speaking out at SC meetings in the small amount of time allotted by the current School committee. Information from the SC has come across as misleading and detached. The fact that the school committee wants to go directly to arbitration and not mediation is disturbing. And, as you know, the SC has presented its position- both in its refusal to hear from parents and teachers but also by sending home messages through our Connect Ed System.
The following Connect Ed message was sent home by you and Ahearn on 09/14/15 presenting one side of the agreement:
To Parents and Faculty:
The intent of this email is to share School Committee priorities in our negotiation talks with the Warwick Teachers Union (WTU), provide facts about the current WTU contract and detail fiscal realities about the School department budget. These appear to need further explanation since there seems to be much mis-information or mis-conceptions circulating about the Committee’s position and proposals for contract terms. The Warwick School Committee and our Administration believe that Warwick is fortunate to have some of the most dedicated and passionate teachers in the state. Warwick’s teachers are also among the highest compensated in the state which is a testament to teacher performance, taxpayer support and consistent WTU strength.
The 2015-16 school year is a pivotal year in our district’s path forward. As a community, we need to succeed in selecting the best candidate for our Superintendent, make intelligent decisions on school re-districting, consolidation and arrive at a fair, affordable teacher contract which encourages excellence and rewards high-achievement. With important, controversial decisions inevitably comes high emotion. The School Committee will continue to value respectful public comment in the areas of superintendent selection, long-term school planning and teacher contracts. We will continue to value thoughtful input and would like to encourage consistent participation in our public meetings. The business of education is many-sided and controlled considerably by municipal, state and federal restrictions and mandates, which are outside of local SC control. Yet these rules command SC consideration in many educational business decisions. Understanding and managing these variables is very involved and cannot be made on impulse or emotion alone.
Your School Committee is dedicated to negotiate a new teacher’s contract in good faith and agree to terms of a successor agreement as expeditiously as possible. As elected officials responsible for negotiating a contract with the WTU, we understand and respect our obligation to maintain some level of confidentiality in the negotiation proceedings between the two parties. The following information is meant to inform the general public so that all may understand Warwick’s current contract framework and the economic realities of the budget the School Department has been assigned by the City.
School Committee negotiation priorities
• Allow for expansion of academic programs that benefit the education of our students and enrich our teachers accordingly
• To enable long-term, realistic student to teacher ratios that support our re-districting efforts and optimize classroom sizes
• To create an environment of high-performance, individual accountability and recognition opportunities for our teachers
• To ensure Warwick’s teachers continue to be rewarded for excellence in the classroom
WTU 2012-14 Contract (extended through 8/31/2015 with an approved 1.18% increase to salaries listed) facts:
Contract link: http://www.warwickschools.org/PDF_Files/WTUContract2012-2014.pdf
• RI average teacher salaries rank 8th highest out of 50 US states. *Source: Teacherportal.com
• RI teacher salaries are determined by “steps” with 1 being starting salary and 10 being highest salary in Warwick.
o Warwick teachers have the 4th highest Step 1 salaries ($42022) out of 37 RI districts
o Warwick teachers have the 6th highest Step 10 salaries ($77505) out of 37 RI districts
*Source: NEARI 2013-14 data
• Teachers have averaged 2.9 % annual increases between 2005-2015.
• Teachers receive step increases annually until step 10 is reached, steps are independent of salary increases, average step raises received this year = approx. $4100 per teacher
Warwick School Department budget facts
• School budgets have not correspondingly increased and have remained level-funded over the past 7 years while the City property tax rates have consistently risen
• SC requested $126M ($6 .95 M over last year’s budget) for 15-16 budget, received $119.4 M which was a $0 increase from the previous year
• Schools unfortunately have cut: ALAP, literacy, professional development, facility repairs, etc., out of economic necessity in recent years
• 86% of our local and state $159M budget is allocated to professional compensation, leaving 14% to run and manage our 23 schools
• 1 % increase in annual teacher pay = $1.37 million dollars cost
As a further point of clarification, during negotiations it is common practice for both sides to start at a certain point and then reach a common ground. We advised WTU negotiators on more than one occasion that the School Committee is willing to give salary increases to our teachers. WTU’s initial proposal was analyzed to cost the District and taxpayers approximately $41,000,000.00 over a three year period. We assumed, and still assume, that the WTU does not really believe the District or Warwick’s taxpayers could absorb such an increase, so we led with $0 as our starting point. In closing, the School Committee respects our teachers and the invaluable work they perform with our kids, and we want to reward the teachers but we all must compromise in the face of these economic realities.
We hope this information better informs all interested parties,
Jennifer Ahearn, Chair of the Warwick School Committee
Eugene Nadeau, Vice Chair of the Warwick School Committee
Will you allow the teacher's and the union to present their case via the Connect Ed system, I think not. So please, please do not generalize and state that 90% do not know what is going on. That is insulting to parents and teachers alike!
Tuesday, December 15, 2015 Report this
RISchadenfreude
TWENTY parents stand with the teachers (teachers outnumbered teachers about 1.5:1, apparently, but that wouldn't make a dramatic pro-union headline).
Too much money spent for too little return. Pathetic.
Thursday, December 17, 2015 Report this