Marblehead Teachers Strike: Schools Closed For 7th Day Wednesday
MARBLEHEAD, MA — Marblehead Public Schools are closed for a seventh straight school day on Wednesday after Superintendent John Robidoux said no deal was reached to end the ongoing teachers’ strike.
Robidoux said at about 6 p.m. that negotiations were ongoing into the night.
The impasse continued on Tuesday as members of the Marblehead Education Association joined members of striking unions in Beverly and Gloucester in calling on Gov. Maura Healey to intervene to help secure new contracts for teachers and end the work stoppages.
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The MEA on Tuesday posted a statement on its website refuting a School Committee statement saying that it would “like to make our teachers the highest-paid on the North Shore but that the union’s proposal is not “affordable or sustainable.”
“The MEA is proposing wages that would allow our district to attract and retain the best educators possible,” the MEA posted. “Our opening offer was a serious effort to do that. The School Committee refuses to make a serious offer that would address our substandard salaries.”
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MEA President Jonathan Heller expressed optimism on Monday night that face-to-face negotiations would create an atmosphere that would reduce acrimony between the sides and better facilitate tentative agreements on issues ranging from wages to paraprofessional status to family leave.
Heller and the MEA have repeatedly pressed the School Committee and Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer to join with teachers in campaigning for a property tax override that would “fully fund schools.”
The MEA said on its social media account on Tuesday that the town “has one of the lowest tax receipts per capita compared to its peer groups.
“It’s time to pay our teachers more and fight for an override,” the MEA said.
Marblehead voters turned down a $3 million general override for the school department in 2022 by a 2-to-1 margin and a 2023 general tax override for the town was voted down by 400 votes in 2023.
“The prospects for an override of that size are slim given the town has rejected four of them in the past 20 years,” School Committee Chair Jennifer Schaeffner has said, adding that a failure to pass an override would result in the layoff of 75 staff members under the current MEA proposal.
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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