Negotiations draw no closer to end
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

The Ashburnham-Westminster Teachers' Association has started to ask for is public support of their desire to get a new contract.

The terms of the contract being negotiated are still not being released by either the Teachers' Association or the Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School Committee. The groups met in a mediation session at Overlook Middle School on Tuesday but no apparent progress was made.

"There has to be some trust," said Linda Perla- Mullins, the president of the Ashburnham-Westminster Teachers' Association. "We are not irresponsible people. … We're not saying, 'Please give us the moon.'"

She says she understands that voters have rejected an override twice in the last nine months to increase the school budge, but said there has to be another way to resolve the issue.

"We live that economy also," Perla-Mullins said.

The Ashburnham-Westminster Teachers' Association and the Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School Committee have been in negotiations since January 2007. They are currently in mediation to try to develop a contract since the teacher's contract ran out on July 1, 2007.

The Ashburnham-Westminster Teachers' Association is the exclusive bargaining agency for the teachers employed on a contract year, the adjustment counselors, the early childhood coordinator, the guidance director and counselors, the health coordinator, the home school liaisons, the librarians, the Life Skills program director, the psychologists, the reading specialists, the school nurses and nurse supervisor, the school to career coordinator, the special education chairperson and the speech/language pathologists and therapists.

"I think a contract by its very definition is fair to both parties," said David Christianson, the Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School Committee chairman.

He said would consider a contract as fair to the district if the "contract that doesn't hurt the teachers in anyway," and is "something that is affordable for the school district and thereby the two towns. You can't spend what you don't have. That is really the crux of the issue."

In October the teachers attended the School Committee meeting to voice their frustration at the slow process of negotiations. At that time they said issues around health insurance and salaries were topping the list of disagreement.

Perla-Mullins said she thinks the committee and the union have reached an agreement on at least one of those issue but declined to get more specific.

"We are both looking at those with different issues," Perla-Mullins said.

Christianson agreed that those were "the two most impactful" issues that they was disagreeing over, but said there are a few other issues.

"Our disagreements in the negotiation have absolutely nothing to do with recognizing the value and the job of teachers," Christianson said. "It has very thing to do with affordability."

Perla-Mullins said she believes the mediation process has slowed things down. She said that they are frustrated with the fact that the School Committee's representatives have only agreed to meet face-toface in two of the seven mediation periods since June.

"You're not really understanding what's going on," she said of the discussion through the mediator.

Perla-Mullins said she thinks the negotiating units need to continue the process.

"I think we have to sit face-to-face. I think we continue talking," she said.

Christianson said there are reasons for the lack of face-to-face meetings.

"The committee requested mediation because we were bullied and mocked by the MTA representative," Christianson said. "We are unpaid volunteers. We got to a point that we were unable to negotiate across the table because of the MTA rep."

He said the committee representatives agreed to meet face-to-face in October with conditions.

"We felt that we had a very successful meeting," he said.

After that meeting, he said, the association declined to meet face-to-face again. The committee again responded to a request to meet in December and again set conditions, he said. But he said those conditions were broken between December and January.

"We have never refused to meet with the teacher face to face," Christianson said. "We have only refused to meet with the MTA rep. … We want to negotiate with the teachers, that has not happened."

Teachers are not happy with the offers on the table by the School Committee.

"The other side is giving us something, but they are taking away something," said Carol-Anne Fitzgerald, the chairwoman of the Ashburnham-Westminster Teachers' Association crisis team.

The crisis team is a group of teachers that is working to unite the teachers in their demonstrations and rallies and to garner public support.

She would not be more specific, but said some of the teachers would be worse off if the union agreed to the latest proposal by the school committee.

Perla-Mullins and Fitzgerald could not state exactly why, how many or which teachers would be "worse off."

Christianson said the committee has not run the numbers for every individual employee but run the averages and the average teacher would not be "worse off."

He said it is collective bargaining so the averages are what are being considered.

"I would be willing to negotiate 182 separate performance-based contracts," he said.

Christianson said there are more than just new money issues and health insurance changes in the contract because of issues of steps, longevity and other payments that contribute to salaries.

"There are a lot of ways to money accrues other than the annual raises," he said.

Perla-Mullins said merit contracts do not work in education because an arbitrary line would be drawn as a standard and there are too many outside forces with students.

"As a teacher and as a parent of a student, I'm a little disturbed that they would consider new programs," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said she was concerned about the proposal of full-day kindergarten and the new curriculum development coordinator position proposed in the superintendent's budget.

Zapantis proposed the new coordinator to replace a series of part-time position lost this year due to the budget cuts. He also proposed using money from the district's excess-and-deficiency account for the oneyear start up cost and state reimbursement to fund it in years to come.

Perla-Mullins said she thinks these programs are needed but does not know if that is the best use for the district's money. She could not name things in the school budget that the teacher's union would be willing to have eliminated.

"There is no magical answer here," she said.

The School Committee also has not discussed what they would eliminate from the budget, because they do not want to agree to a contract that would require cuts.

"We have an ethical obligation not to spend what we don't have," Christianson said. "We haven't discussed what we would cut."

He said most of the district's cost is in personnel, so that is the most obvious part of the budget to cut in the future, as it was this year. He said the district cannot cut heating or electricity or other fixed costs.

One of the issues the teachers have raised is that they do a lot of work outside of the classroom and outside of the normal contract hours. Perla-Mullins said extending the contract hours was not something that would help the situation because it would affect many other aspects of the school district. She said the teachers are not complaining about the amount of work or the number of hours required.

"We're only asking to be paid fairly," Perla-Mullins said.

Perla-Mullins said people need to understand that teaching is more than simply standing in front of the classroom and handing out materials and lecturing to students.

"Unless you are doing the job, you don't understand everything that goes into it," she said. "I would say that about any job."

Christianson said he believes the committee has a good relationship with teachers and understands the work that is associated with the job.

"Without the relationship between the teacher and the student in the classroom, nothing is delivered," he said. "I don't believe there is any philosophical divide here. The division is one of affordability, it is one of economics."

Perla-Mullins said she understands the School Committee is elected to represent the community, but she said the union's negotiating team was elected to represent their membership.

The union surveyed the staff, categorized the requests and ranked them based amount of staff members citing them.

Christianson has proposed taking the offers presented by both sides public, but Perla-Mullins said it is not her decision to make. She said the union would have to make that decision, but said the entire membership has not taken that issue up nor has the negotiating committee brought it up to the membership.