About 10,000 North Shore students aren’t in school as a result of teacher strikes in Beverly, Gloucester and now Marblehead.
Teachers in Marblehead had been on the verge of striking for several weeks, working only until the bell rings and not participating in extra-curriculars and other duties outside their contract before taking to the picket line Tuesday morning.
Marblehead parent Cassie Sturdivant Watt said she supports the striking teachers and has seen the effects of the educators’ low pay on her three children with special needs.
“There has been a lot of staff turnover,” she said. “I don’t think that it’s unreasonable to say we need to have a school system that’s well funded and that supports our teachers in a way that allows them to then support the students.”
The striking educators are seeking pay increases, particularly for teachers’ aides, who earn as little as $20,000 annually. In some of the towns, teachers are also negotiating for reduced class sizes, increased prep time and access to support and services for special education students.
In a statement, the Marblehead School Committee accused the teachers unions of “conspiring with other [Massachusetts Teachers Association] unions in neighboring communities” on a strike that was hurting students. The committee also said teachers were asking for raises large enough to create a budget shortfall that could eventually lead to layoffs.
“Our proposal keeps all of our teachers employed and our class sizes intact with a 10.5% increase for all teachers and an additional 2% raise for teachers who are currently at the top of the pay scale,” the statement said. “Our offer would increase the average teacher salary to more than $100,000 and the top scale salary to $108,954 for 184 working days.”
The Marblehead educators joined teachers in Beverly and Gloucester, who voted last Thursday to authorize strikes.
The Beverly Teachers Association and the local school committee ended nearly 40 hours of negotiations without reaching an agreement late Monday night, then returned to the bargaining table the next morning.
“There was so much hope in the room that we were actually going to get this thing done,” Beverly Middle School teacher Kris Melanson said. “We would have literally stayed there all night.”
The union proposed a four-year contract that would give the school committee “flexibility,” he said, but he said the school responded with an offer that had retracted previously agreed-upon terms.
School committee chair Rachael O. Abell said in a statement that the four-year contract came as a surprise “rather than the three-year contract we have been discussing for months.”
“The School Committee is working with the urgency that our community deserves to end this strike,” the statement said.
Melanson, who started a food truck business in 2020 to supplement his teaching income, said the union is fighting for higher wages and improved benefits for new parents.
Melanson said his wife, also a teacher in Beverly, is 36 weeks pregnant, so he appreciates the union’s efforts to win 12 weeks of paid parental leave, instead of the three teachers currently receive.
“It’s crazy because we’re the ones that take care of other people’s children, but we are not given the opportunity to take care of our own,” he said. “I need to get this deal done so I can have a little peace of mind that I’m going to be able to spend some time with my newborn.”
Teacher strikes are illegal in Massachusetts and fines can accrue the longer teachers remain on picket lines. The unions in Gloucester and Beverly face potential fines for defying court orders to return to the classroom.
The Beverly school committee emphasized that in a statement Monday.
“We are doing our part to get fair contracts finalized,” Abell wrote. “The [Beverly Teachers Association] needs to do their part now by ending this illegal strike, working with us to reach an agreement and letting our students get back to school.”
Eighth-grade Spanish teacher Lydia Ames has taught at Beverly Middle School for nearly two decades and her daughter was enrolled at the school last year.
“She started with a five teacher team, and by the end of the year, three of those teachers were gone,” she said. “Some of them left for situations that were just better, not just in terms of salary but in some of the day-to-day operations of what it’s like to work here.”
Ames said classes are overcrowded, teachers are overworked and the school doesn’t provide adequate pathways for teaching aides to move forward into full-time teaching roles.
As teachers stood along the road outside the middle school holding signs and cheering as cars passed by, honking their horns, a handful of parents and students came out to provide support. Emma St. Hilaire, a 17-year-old Beverly High School student, handed out donuts, hot coffee and hand warmers to teachers along the picket line.
“I think that what they’re asking for and what they’re doing is very necessary and needed,” St. Hilaire said.
St. Hilaire said she will play the role of the aunt in Beverly High School’s fall production of Little Women this year. With classes and extracurricular activities shut down as a result of the strike, she and the other theater students have kept rehearsals goingwithout the teachers.
“It’s been tough but we’re pushing through because we’re passionate about it,” she said. “Everyone’s kind of committed to still having things run as normal, even though it’s not exactly normal right now.”
