APEA Urges Voters To Sit Out School Override Until Contract Is Settled
Photo: Amherst Pelham Education Association
Source: Amherst Pelham Education Association
The Executive Committee of the Amherst Pelham Education Association (APEA), emphasizing that they have been working under an expired contract since July of 2022, announced at their meeting on March 23 that the union “urges voters to withhold a yes vote (on the elementary school debt exclusion override) until the School Committee comes to an agreement with educators on a fair contract.”
Claire Cocco a teacher at Amherst Regional Middle School added “For several years, Amherst School district cost-of-living raises have barely kept up with inflation rates and rising costs of healthcare. Over time, demands on educators have risen. The profession is more intense than it has ever been. The country is facing a teacher shortage. The district cannot staff paraeducator, clerical and teaching positions. Turnover is high. This instability is not good for our children. “This community prides itself on its educational values and high standards, which reflect in home values. Because of educator expertise, students enjoy a wide range of opportunities that help them achieve their dreams.”
The APEA held a rally in support of a fair contract just prior to the beginning of their next mediation session on Friday (3/24) in front of the entrances to the district offices at the Middle School.
I support APEA and their right to a fair contract AND I think this statement is a big mistake.
The new school will be a tremendous improvement over the current Wildwood and Fort River buildings, providing educators excellent facilities in which to work. It will be a boon for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and making significant progress toward our climate goals. It will result in vastly improved playing fields that all residents can benefit from. AND it will HELP the schools’ operating budget, making future budgets less challenging than they might otherwise be.
I understand why APEA has thought to use the school vote as leverage, but urging voters to withhold their support for the debt exclusion override is misguided and harmful in my opinion. It will only harm educators and students and families.
I hope APEA members will reconsider this stance.
Well put Toni. I agree. This override needs to pass for the students, the town, the teachers and the earth. And the teachers deserve a fair contract right now. We heard teachers decrying the condition of Wildwood and Fort River for the past several years. This is a chance to replace those decrepit buildings with a much better school.
The educators in this town will destroy their own best interests by holding the new school hostage to achieve their contract goals. As it is, with the average $13,000+ hit to homeowners over thirty years that is implied in the debt exclusion vote, gaining the necessary majority vote is a stretch. For the educators to recommend a vote against the school as homeowners are debating this issue is a very poor decision by their leadership. I plan to vote for the new school, and I agree that a new contract should be negotiated quickly, definitely before the next school year. But to link these two goals together is disappointing and counterproductive to our town. It is likely to lead to the failure of the new school vote, in which case our educators are going to be working in substandard conditions for a long time to come. I ask them, is that a win?
These two issues should not be linked. What has happened to educator pay in Amherst is shameful. However, the negotiation should not interfere with all of the positives of a new school building.
I fully support the Fort River Building Plan, but not the way town leaders have chosen to fund it. The Town Council majority is using the importance of the school as leverage to extract a large tax override from the voters while the town pays for costly lower priority projects directly from the capital budget. Why shouldn’t the educators use the school as leverage to gain a raise they feel they deserve?
In a state where it is illegal for teachers to strike, what other bargaining chips do they have to move the intractable leaders who control the town’s purse strings?