Salem School Officials, Teachers Union At Odds Over Fall Starting Date

SALEM, MA — The start of the next school year is causing a disconnect between Salem school officials and the Salem Teachers Union after the School Committee voted Monday night to approve a first day of school before Labor Day in what the union calls a violation of its contract with the district.

Superintendent Steve Zrike proposed the next school calendar at the last School Committee meeting that included a four-day "Halloween break," an extra day off after New Year's Day, and the first day of classes the week before Labor Day for the third straight year.

At issue, the union said, is a provision in its collective-bargaining agreement signed in 2016-2017 that "in any year when Labor Day occurs after September 4th, in all schools, unless otherwise negotiated prior to or after the execution of this agreement, the school year for students shall begin the Tuesday before Labor Day."

Only Labor Day in 2023 is on — not after — Sept. 4.

"Therefore, the student year should start the Tuesday after Labor Day," Salem Teachers Union President Ann Berman clarified to Patch on Tuesday. "Our issue is with the violation of our contract language. We have never had an issue with a before Labor Day start for students when Labor Day has fallen on September 5, 6, or 7."

That was the case in 2021 and 2022 when the holiday fell on Sept. 6 and Sept. 5, respectively. Salem Schools started after Labor Day in the five years prior — including the 2021 late start amid the COVID-19 health crisis.

Berman said the discrepancy was brought to the attention of Superintendent Steve Zrike and the School Committee Personnel Subcommittee prior to Monday's meeting, but that the School Committee voted 6-1 in favor of the calendar anyway. School Committee member James Fleming was the lone Committee member to vote against ratifying the 2023-24 calendar.

"I very much respect the perspective that the union brings," Zrike said at the meeting. "While we may not see — and I am speaking for myself — eye to eye on the contractual language, I will just point out that the calendar was an attempt to be as responsive as we could to what I felt like we had heard from the community about many different factors."

Zrike said attempts to make the calendar as palatable to all as possible included moving one of the professional days from the beginning of the year into March to break up a month that otherwise has no holidays, and the logistical necessity of doing something about Halloween as hundreds of thousands of holiday tourists invade the city on a school day.

"The original purpose of having Halloween (Tuesday, Oct. 31 in 2023) off was that the day was just hectic with traffic," Zrike said. "Even an early release wouldn't necessarily help us on Halloween when they start closing roads at breakfast time sometimes.

"We did an extra day (Monday, Oct. 30) to that Halloween (break) period because we did get feedback that there are all people who want some sort of pause in the fall. Then we also added a day in January (the Tuesday after Jan. 1, 2024) because while there were many people who didn't love the (second weeklong) break (this school year) there were some people who appreciated having a little extra time during the holiday break."

Berman said the union said it has not determined any next steps in the contract violation.

"I know with the calendar we are not going to make everyone happy," Zrike said. "There are different constituents involved. I thought it was the best effort to be responsive.

"I still believe this calendar reflects what I've heard from the community — and that includes this staff and includes families — not just from the survey we did, but there has been a lot of feedback since last year about the calendar. I've repeatedly had people tell me what they like and what they don't like about the school calendar."

School Committee Vice-Chair Manny Cruz noted that the school calendar process was "well underway when we did receive notification from the superintendent around some issues around the interpretation around some of the (contract) language" and that the calendar's approval had approached the point where it was becoming time-sensitive at the same time when the Committee could still have "future conversations to address the clarity around the language within the contract."

"It's difficult to win on all accounts," Zrike said. "But I do believe this makes the most sense given what we've heard. I do appreciate the partnership with the STU. While we may not see completely see eye to eye, I do very much respect their perspective.

"But I do feel like we have many constituencies when we develop a calendar and I feel like this is in the best interest of the kids, families and staff for the upcoming school year."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)