Letter: Negotiating Our Teachers’ Wages Represents Negotiating The Value Of Our Education Itself.

I am writing as a member of the Student Representative Committee (SRC), an organization made up of Amherst Regional High School (ARHS) student council members and other ARHS students, two of whom are also student members on the Amherst School Committee.

It is my belief, and the belief of our committee, that the ongoing and protracted negotiations between the Amherst Pelham Education Association and the School Committee require us to look at the bigger picture.  The SRC hopes to convey the notion that negotiating our teachers’ wages represents negotiating the value of our education itself. We hope to look beyond budgets and monetary constraints and simply remember the underlying reason we pay our teachers. We pay them to acknowledge their extraordinary efforts, which are often under appreciated or overlooked.

Our education is only as good as our teachers, who go above and beyond every day to further it. This has become overwhelmingly apparent to us in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their sustained efforts not only make our education possible but have defined our experience during the most important stages of our development. Through their enduring dedication and commitment, they have become far more than just teachers. One of my peers in thinking back to middle school remembers countless educators who went far beyond their duties as teachers. “One example,” he wrote, “was Mr. Madison. Right in the middle of COVID, he showed up to my track and field events to support me and my teammates. He also spent extra time with me and Ms Gomes to help me write the lyrics to a musical I composed and that was performed by the middle school chorus at the moving-on celebration in 8th grade.”

Our teachers’ devotion to us touches us in a way that no textbook could. Their guidance and encouragement help us grow not just as students, but as people—so their effort extends far beyond the walls of our classrooms and into our school community and the world beyond. In light of everything they do for us, we would like to express our gratitude to our teachers. We want to thank them for, as junior Julian Hynes said, “putting students’ problems first even when it feels impossible.”

Our teachers’ contributions to our learning are unequivocal. Keeping this in mind, we ask ourselves: if our education is truly the priority, why do we hesitate to fairly compensate our teachers for their invaluable efforts?  

Since our teachers are still working without a fair contract and have moved to “work to rule”, students have felt the difference. We understand why this action is critically important and fully support our teachers in taking it, but make no mistake; the longer their contract takes to resolve, the more it affects us.  Students wonder about the reason for the lack of substitutes as they sit in classrooms without a teacher, before being herded into the auditorium to be supervised en masse. They wonder when their assignments will be graded, or how they will get the extra help they need to thrive.

Our school has historically been known to provide high-level education. Is the current situation what we deserve? Is the district providing the highest level of education? What we have currently is teachers who are disregarded and unsupported and students who are not able to have the access to their teachers as they did before.

We plead with the school committee to resolve this issue as soon as possible, to prioritize giving our teachers and students both what they both need and deserve to reach their highest potential.

Miguel Pinero-Jacome on behalf of the Student Representative Committee

Miguel Pinero-Jacome is a junior at Amherst Regional High School