Gloucester educators called Mayor Verga to the bargaining table after this week’s contract negotiations failed to make progress Tuesday night.

More than 100 educators attended the 10th open bargaining session where there was little movement on key issues such as parental leave, health and safety, and cost of living adjustments.

Educators, who voted work-to-rule last week, went into the session expecting counters to the package proposal they presented at the September 23rd bargaining session.

“We were eager to hear counters to that,” said GTA president Rachel Rex. “Instead we were delivered a package proposal from the School Committee. ”

The main focuses of the evening were the GTA proposals that addressed parental leave,  email response time, elementary school prep time, and wages. The union also flagged proposals for the sick bank and family sick leave.

“What is most critical and important to the educators is a more humane paid parental leave policy, equity in after school meeting and prep time for our elementary school teachers, and a living wage proposal that reflects educators’ level of education and seniority,” Rex said.

While parental leave is a union priority, the School Committee maintained their offer of 5 days of paid parental leave in contrast to the 12 weeks proposed by the teachers.

Tensions rose on the subject of cost of living adjustments. The School Committee held firm on its wage proposal of a 7.25% cost of living adjustment over three years – 2.25% the first year, and 2.5% for the second and third years.

“Our teachers cannot afford to live here anymore because they can get paid more in all of the districts around here,” O’Maley math teacher Michelle Bailey said. “Personally, I drive through four districts that will pay me more to get here. The teachers need to be paid fairly.”

The Union maintains at least five educators have left Gloucester Public Schools within the last year to take jobs with higher salaries, smaller class sizes and smaller special education caseloads in neighboring districts.

The School Committee dismissed concerns about teacher retention, with statistics showing that Gloucester schools retained 87.3% of teachers in the 2023-2024 school year.

“It’s never good when a teacher wants to leave our district,” School Committee member Laura Wiessen said. “There are also places where the economics are different. We do value you…we, unlike other organizations, don’t have income, we have no profits…we don’t make money.”

The School Committee also rejected the GTA proposal on emails, which requests administrators respond to a teacher’s email within 5 days of receiving it.

Teachers pointed out that administrator response is often necessary in cases of student discipline referrals, or requests for pre-approval to register for continuing education courses.

“We’re definitely not going to put it in the contract, language that pins our administrators down to a certain amount of time to get back to you,” School Committee member Bill Melvin said.

The contract does require educators to respond to all emails within 48 hours.

Another point of contention is the School Committee’s proposal to add extra time to the teacher’s work schedule with no adjustment in compensation, extending the elementary schedule by 35 minutes, and the middle school schedule by 20 minutes.

After an hour-long caucus, educators withdrew proposals for half sick days, and time off for observing religious holidays. The teachers withdrew their religious holiday proposal, with the expectation that the school committee will reconsider their position on use of personal days.

Additionally, the union agreed to the School Committee’s sick day accrual proposal, with the expectation the School Committee will reconsider their counter on parental leave.

After the meeting, educators released a video on the Gloucester Teachers Association Facebook page calling on Mayor Verga to attend negotiations.

“We are demanding Mayor Verga join us at the next bargaining session to directly address the concerns of educators, to fully fund our schools,” Rex said in the video. “We implore our elected officials to hear from educators and decide for yourselves what needs to be done.”

The School Committee did not respond to requests for additional comments.

Matters of parental leave, wages and more remain unclear, as no contract agreement was reached between the two parties. The next negotiation meeting is scheduled for Oct. 29, at 4:30 p.m. in the GHS library.

This story was originally published on The Gillnetter on October 10, 2024.