Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
MARBLEHEAD, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Teachers in Marblehead gathered in front of the Glover School on Sunday amid a looming strike.
Marblehead could be the third North Shore district to go on strike, alongside Beverly and Gloucester, as union members of the Marblehead Education Association voted to authorize to take to the picket lines on Friday, Nov. 8 if no deal is reached by Tuesday, Nov. 12. The union says it's fighting for safer learning environment, better benefits, and more competitive wages.
Hannah Partyka, a rep from the union, told WBZ NewsRadio that their schools are “severely understaffed” because they have some of the worst pay scales.
“Hourly wages for a paraprofessional is $11.97 an hour when some of our high school students can make almost double that working an after school job,” she told WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel, adding that many of her colleagues take on extra jobs on top of teaching to make ends meet.
“Waiting tables, tutoring, nannying, babysitting, anything that they can,” Partyka continued.
Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
Special-Ed teacher Laura Weiss said that “the problem is that a starting teacher could go to the next town over and make a minimum of $20,000 more to start,” instead of applying for the vacancies that persist in the district.
Ahead of the walk out, schools in Marblehead have already cancelled classes on Tuesday. As of right now, classes in Beverly and Gloucester have not been cancelled on Tuesday.
Marblehead town said there’s no room in the budget to approve the teachers’ demands without layoffs or a large tax increase.
Meanwhile, union negotiators for teachers in Beverly and Gloucester met with the members of the school committee and state mediators on Saturday to come to an agreement after a judge ordered the strike to end. Under Massachusetts law, public workers are prohibited to go on strike, and this includes teachers.
Educators in all three districts have been working without a new contract after negotiations stalled for months.
WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.
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