Thousands of children in Massachusetts remain out of school as unionized teachers enter their sixth day of strikes.
The Newton Teachers Association is demanding higher pay, parental leave, and more school counselors during its strike while racking up court-imposed fines that have reached $375,000.
It is illegal for teachers to strike in Massachusetts, and Gov. Maura Healey (D-MA) called it a “very challenging situation” and encouraged a resolution.
“Children need to be back in school,” Healey said.
Michele Exner, senior adviser for education advocacy group Parents Defending Education, criticized the union’s actions.
“12,000 students are on their way to missing an entire week of school because teachers unions continue to put their self-interests above students,” Exner told the Washington Examiner. “It is a dereliction of duty and a failure to do the job they are paid to do. It shouldn’t become the norm in America that parents are forced to endure closure after closure because teachers unions walk out and refuse to do their taxpayer-funded responsibilities.”
According to the school committee and the union, negotiations broke down Thursday, with district committee Chairman Christopher Brezski saying, “The day did not end on a positive note” ahead of another day of school closures on Friday.
“We understand how hard this is for families,” Brezski added. “It’s hard on my family. I know it’s hardest on families that are the most vulnerable, kids that are most vulnerable. We are doing everything we can to end this and get our kids back.”
NBC Boston reported that the mediator between the parties has stopped the two sides from meeting face to face and that the city’s mayor, Ruthanne Fuller, has not been active in negotiations. Fuller is one of nine members of the school committee but does not determine contract terms.
At a news conference, Fuller said she “deeply value[s] our teachers,” saying, “I am all in on resolving this and we’ve got to do it urgently.”
Teachers union president Michael Zilles said the district is using a delay tactic.
“The biggest sticking point is that the Newton School committee refuses to bargain with us,” Zilles said. “They are playing a game of wait it out, wait it out. Wait it out. That’s the biggest sticking point. There is nothing in particular that we are fighting over that we couldn’t reach agreement on.”
“They are not negotiating. They are waiting us out,” he added.
The strike appeared to reach a fevered pitch Thursday when a group of 20 striking teachers breached a barrier at city hall and went to the mayor’s office to knock on the door, demanding an audience.
“What they did today was not role modeling what I think our adults should be doing here in Newton,” Fuller said of the incident. “They pushed past the office staff; they crowded down the hall in front of my office. They started pounding on the door. That’s not a way to send me a message.”
The Newton Teachers Association voted to strike last Thursday, shutting down school since the following Friday.
In an early Monday morning message to union members, Zilles called out “junk communication” from the committee and Fuller, calling their framing of the situation “malarky that lacks any substantive value.”
“You’ve probably heard some of it — Brezski complaining about how long the NTA took to reply to them on Sunday, about how we raised the cost of our proposal by 15%, nonsense from Mayor Fuller about how generously she funds the schools, from Brezski about how it’s completely the NTA’s fault that students will not be returning to school tomorrow morning,” he wrote. “All this is exactly what I just called it — junk communication. It’s false, and we’ve countered what they have said.”
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The Newton strike is one of several Massachusetts has seen in different communities since May 2022, which have included Andover, Brookline, Haverhill, Malden, and Woburn.
The strike also joins a chorus of teacher strikes across the country, in which major school districts such as Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles, and Oakland, California, have shut down schools, costing students weeks of time in the classroom.
