Contract negotiations continue with union
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

The Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School Committee met twice in executive session Tuesday night for what School Committee Chairman David Christianson said was "to discuss negotiation issues" with the teachers' union.

The committee met for an hour at the beginning of their meeting with Supt. Michael Zapantis and Business Administrator Sherry Kersey, and then met for more than 90 minutes with town officials from both Ashburnham and Westminster. Christianson said it was time to bring the town officials up to date and ensure that all of the parties were "all on the same page."

"They hadn't been updated since the fall," Christianson said.

The teachers' association - the district's largest union - had a contract that expired on June 30, and have been in negotiations with the School Committee since last fall. The parties have been in mediation

since the summer. All three selectmen from Ashburnham were represented in the executive session, as was the Advisory Board by a majority of the members. Westminster was represented during the session by Selectman Tom O'Toole, Town Coordinator Karen Murphy and a majority of their Advisory Board.

The committee abbreviated their planned agenda for the executive sessions.

Linda Perla-Mullins, the presi- dent of the Ashburnham-Westminster Teachers' Association, said, on Wednesday, the union isn't ready to make a public comment about the negotiations, but she thinks a public comment will be forthcoming.

"Our union is totally notified of everything that is going on at the negotiation table," Perla Mullins said.

Christianson said the mediator decides whether the process is working and if they are approaching a decision. If the mediator feels the two sides have reached an impasse, then the process moves into fact-finding, in which a new third-party will review the status, the finances, and all of the offers on the table.

The members of the AWTA have been sending postcards to School Committee members. School Committee member Gwen Farley told the committee she'd forgotten to bring them as part of the correspondence she had received as a School Committee member.

Christianson acknowledged receipt of the cards and said he appreciated the comments from the organization.

"We just wish they were more cooperative in moving things forward," he said during the meeting.

The union publicly expressed its frustrations in October during a School Committee meeting. Since shortly after that meeting the teachers have been holding informational pickets before and after school.

Perla-Mullins said they have held about three or four of these protests.

"People have different interpretations of that," she said on Wednesday morning.

Christianson simply said, "they clearly feel strongly enough about it to demonstrate in front of the kids."

In October, he proposed putting the offers out on the table and he is still willing to do that.

"It's not a one-sided proposal," he said. "We can't spend what we don't have."

He added that the proposal being offered by the committee is not balancing the tough financial picture "on their backs."