Possible Beverly Teacher Strike Vote Looms Amid Contract Impasse
BEVERLY, MA — Beverly school teachers, administrators, parents and students are bracing for a potential teacher strike vote amid a contract impasse more than two months after the expiration of the last collective-bargaining agreement.
While Beverly Teachers Association co-President Andrea Sherman told Patch that the BTA is "committed to bargaining with the School Committee and advocating for the schools our students and staff deserve," Mayor Michael Cahill in a letter to Patch this week urged against a proposed vote on an "illegal strike" that he blamed on pressure from the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
"I understand you have scheduled a vote to go on strike later this week, something I believe the state teachers union has been pressuring you to do all along," wrote Cahill, who is also a member of the School Committee. "Please do not do this. Do not join with the MTA in this illegal strike; it would be a big mistake, causing our children and community immeasurable damage."
Cahill insisted the city has bargained in good faith with the teachers with its current offer including $24.45 million in new spending over the three years of the proposed deal — a 25 percent increase in spending. He said the offer amounts to a 27.2 percent increase in wages for teachers (inclusive of steps) and a 42.8 percent increase for paraprofessionals.
"This is the offer that you said at the beginning of the negotiations we needed to make," Cahill said. "It makes the market corrections we together seek. Importantly, this will place you among the best-compensated educators in our region."
But the BTA said the offer still amounts to "poverty wages" for paraprofessionals and has not included other provisions to address what union leaders call a "crisis" in Beverly Public Schools.
"Our students need longer lunch and recess and additional support when they feel emotionally dysregulated," Sherman told Patch. "We must address that students do better when they have strong relationships with school staff — consistent staff who know them.
"We know this isn't happening because of the overwhelming turnover directly related to the poverty wages BPS pays its paraprofessionals. We are imploring the School Committee and the mayor to do what's right: end the crisis in our schools."
Cahill said the current offer "already places our city government at the threshold of its financial resources" and would necessitate the elimination of the modest tax levy relief that city property owners have had in recent years.
"It is time for this contract to be settled," Cahill said. "I urge you to come back to the bargaining table in good faith and let's settle these contracts."
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at X/Twitter:
