BEVERLY — The School Committee is requesting a mediator join stalled contract negotiations with the Beverly Teachers Association.
The mediator would be a neutral third-party assigned by the Massachusetts Department of Labor, School Committee President Rachael Abell said in a prepared statement Wednesday.
The move comes nine months after negotiations began. While the School Committee and the union are close on tentative agreements for issues like personal days and supply reimbursement, that’s not the case for wage increases and paid parental leave.
“While we know the BTA members share our desire to reach an agreement, it is difficult to make progress without meaningful responses to the School Committee’s proposals and with continued uncompromising demands from the BTA,” Abell said in the statement.
“Members of the School Committee believe this lack of progress on issues our educators identified as critical elements, especially well-deserved wage increases, will benefit from the experience of the DLR resources.”
The School Committee has “made good faith and strong proposals and counter proposals,” Abell said.
“This does not mean we will not continue to negotiate and engage in the conversations and collaborative work with our educators, just that we recognize the frustration in the present meeting format is not moving us closer to resolution,” she said.
BTA Co-President Julia Brotherton said the union is disappointed in the committee’s decision to bring in a mediator and wants to continue to meet them at the table as they are “making slow progress,” she told The Salem News.
“It is true that we’re sticking to our positions on wages and salaries,” Brotherton said. “We especially feel that a living wage for paraprofessionals is a moral issue the School Committee has to address.”
This is the first time the School Committee has requested a mediator in Brotherton’s time on the BTA, she said.
Beverly teachers have been working-to-rule since last week. This means they arrive and leave work at the exact times their current contract calls for (and not stay for after-school or extracurricular duties) as a way to protest the lack of a new contract. The teachers planned to implement the tactic at one or two schools each day until a contract agreement was reached.
On Oct. 4, teachers across the district stood outside of their schools before classes began with signs demanding a new contract.
The School Committee presented the BTA with its most recent wage increase proposal in August. Under that proposal, each teacher at the top step of the salary scale would receive a raise of nearly $14,000 over the next three years while all other educators would see an increase of 4% to 12.1% during that time.
The BTA is requesting more lower-paid positions be moved into higher-paid columns, the hourly curriculum rate be increased to at least $50 per hour and that a teacher with a master’s degree earning the maximum salary make no less than $105,000, among other requests.
The union is also calling for 12 weeks of paid parental leave that is completely funded by the district.
The lack of paid-parental leave for public school teachers in Massachusetts has been an increasingly hot-button issue since 2018. That year, the state passed the Paid Family Medical Leave Act that excluded coverage for municipal employees, including teachers.
The School Committee’s current proposal would allow educators 12 weeks of paid parental leave with two of those weeks funded by the district. The other 10 weeks would be covered by an educator’s accumulated leave and/or a proposed parental leave bank.
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com