Teachers Ask School Committee For Respect

As many as 200 teachers packed the School Committee meeting room and hall outside the room Tuesday night over disrespect.

With contract negotiations beginning, someone—not a School Committee member—said teachers just show up and get a paycheck, teachers’ union co-president Nancy Whalen told Woburn Patch after she and three other teachers asked the committee for support and respect during negotiations.

“We hoped for kinder, gentler negotiations,” Whalen told the School Committee. “We do not expect the sun, moon and stars... (Just) an asteroid.”

Teacher Maura Duffy Hooper asked for a “fair and equitable” contract for Woburn teachers.

Barbara Locke, who identified herself as a teacher at the , said she hoped for a “respectful atmosphere.”

Teacher Susan Thifault said what was offered did not reflect what the teachers provide.

It is “atypical”—unusual—that contract negotiations got unpleasant so quickly, Whalen told Woburn Patch.

Whalen said teachers were asked to come to the School Committee meeting to “be supportive.” She provided the estimate of the number of teachers at the meeting.

As part of the negotiating team, School Committee member Denis Russell said yesterday’s contract negotiation meeting was, he felt, “a very positive one.”  He said he thought “we had overcome uncomfortableness.”

Our intent is to do what we can as quickly and fairly to benefit all, he said.

In other action, the committee recommended a for the coming fiscal year to present to Mayor Scott Galvin. The new fiscal year, 2012, starts this coming July 1.

The budget reflects a 1.98 percent increase over the current school budget of just under $46.7 million, according to Joseph Elia, assistant school superintendent for finance and operations.

Before the committee voted on the bottom-line budget number, they lowered the number by $126,000.  Math coaches and a math specialist were hired under a grant half-way through this year, explained school Supt. Mark Donovan, so $126,000 is available for next year. That money will help defray the end of American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds.

Only one person spoke at the public hearing on the budget. Mona Smith of Salem Avenue said she was “sad” that the elementary school-level foreign language program was being cut. We’ve already lost German and Russian classes, she said.

“Woburn has taken enough hits,” Smith said. “Keep a school system we can be proud of.”

Foreign language will not be cut at the elementary school level, Russell responded. Rather, it will be taught in a different way, with technology. The school system must provide English as a Second Language or the federal government will take $3 million away from this school system, he said.

Finally, by the end of the week, parents of elementary school students who attend the Clapp-Goodyear School should receive a notice informing them whether their child or children will attend the new Goodyear School or the White School after the Clapp closes as a school at the end of this school year.

The , and the to send students who would have attended the old Goodyear School to the , along with some 100 Clapp School students. About 60 Clapp School students will transfer to the White School.

The delay in issuing the redistricting notices resulted from details, such as a few strangely-numbered streets, Donovan said.