BEVERLY – Like classes were cancelled in Beverly for a sixth day because of the Teachers’ strike on the North Shorethe school committee is now publicly considering how students will make up for missed learning time.
Massachusetts law requires students to attend classes for at least 180 days, and it is not yet clear when the strike will end.
“Unfortunately, our options are limited and we may cancel some or all February or April vacation weeks, postpone graduation or weekend school,” School Committee Chair Rachael Abell said in a statement. “We are telling you this in the interest of transparency.”
After an 11-day teacher strike in Newton earlier this year, the district decided demolished February holiday week to make up for lost teaching time.
Parents and students hope that it will not come to that in Beverly.
“It’s really a challenge. We’re both working parents. I had to take the day off today, in an effort to help support the other working parents, so we’re taking turns looking after each other’s kids and trying to make this work,” says Beverly’s mother. said Jessica Speer.
“If it’s on the weekend, I probably wouldn’t like it because it would disrupt my sport and it would change our schedules,” said Beverly student Devlyn Walsh.
“We want our children to go back to school as soon as possible. They can’t stay home,” said Beverly parent Farah Augustine.
Teachers from Beverly, Marblehead and Gloucester will strike together at the Statehouse in Boston on Tuesday. School will be closed in all three communities on Tuesday.
Beverly’s teachers stopped negotiations
The School Committee and the Beverly Teachers Association issued dueling statements Monday on the state of negotiations. The union wants better wages, paid family leave and more funding for paraprofessionals, while the school committee says “there is not enough money to accomplish everything the BTA is demanding.”
“We have just learned that the union has summarily rejected all of the proposals we sent to them yesterday afternoon,” Abell said. “We need counter-proposals from them to move forward and we will continue to wait for them to join us and negotiate.”
The union, meanwhile, said more than 1,000 people showed up Monday for a middle school-to-high school march in support of the teachers. They say the mayor and school committee have rejected their ideas for a compromise.
“Given the overwhelming support we have received from the community, it is clear that the politicians have a larger strategy that has nothing to do with our schools,” BTA co-chair Andrea Sherman said in a statement. “They want to break us… We won’t stop until we fix our schools.”
“It’s just really sad. I’ve lost a lot of confidence in our school committee and our mayor because of this,” Spear said.
Marblehead teachers are on strike
Marblehead teachers and the school committee met in person for the first time Monday. They’re on day six of missed school in the city, but aren’t slowing down.
“Every paraprofessional and teacher needs a living wage,” said Marblehead teacher Angela Graziano.
Negotiations in Gloucester with striking teachers
The Gloucester School Committee said negotiations with teachers made significant progress on Monday, but not enough to reach a deal.
