Melrose Educators Plan Rally After ‘Work To Rule’ Vote

MELROSE, MA — Melrose educators took a new step in ongoing protests over the state of educator contract negotiations on Monday of last week, with members approving a “work to rule” action, according to a statement from the Melrose Education Association.

The educators union is now planning a work to rule kickoff rally in front of Melrose City Hall on Monday, organizers said. That event is set for 7 p.m.

A tool in various labor disagreements, work to rule actions often see union members work exactly to the letter of their contracts, avoiding any extra non-contracted duties as a form of protest.

Melrose Education Association teachers and paraprofessionals contracts expired earlier this year. With no successor deal reached, educators have been working under the guidelines of their now expired contract.

Melrose Education Association members have called for movement toward new full contracts in various protests, rallies and public comments to the Melrose School Committee.

As negotiations instead draw on, union leaders last week said they were frustrated.

“Our members are sick and tired of being expected to accept the mistakes of school and city management,” Melrose Education Association President Lisa Donovan said in a statement on Tuesday.

School Committee President Jen McAndrew previously addressed contract negotiations late last month.

Among other things, she spoke directly to Melrose Education Association members gathered in City Hall in preparation for their own public comments in a scheduled School Committee meeting on Oct. 25.

“We want to work with you–not in an adversarial way–to get a deal that meets your needs, our students' needs, and the needs of the community,” McAndrew said.

Such a deal, she said, would need to include the “fiscal needs and realities” of Melrose.

"We look forward to a comprehensive, fair agreement," McAndrew said, in part, in a separate statement to Patch regarding contract negotiations back in September.

"We believe this is fully achievable,” she continued at the time.

Melrose educators have laid out a series of contract asks in messaging and public events to date. These range from higher teacher and paraprofessional pay to increased planning time for educators.

Requests come, though, as Melrose has faced several school-related issues and controversies outside its contract issues with educators.

District and city leaders worked over the summer to plug a $2.2 million budget shortfall that they began to identify in July just as officials tried to close the books on the 2022 fiscal year, according to Superintendent Julie Kukenberger.

Kukenberger announced the shortfall news at the end of September, quickly facing criticism from some city officials and others in the general public over both the decision to wait months to deliver this announcement and the circumstances that triggered this shortfall.

Kukenberger has since announced she will not seek a new contract beyond the end of the current school year.

Lingering as a topic of discussion among Melrose school officials, recent budget issues come, in turn, in the shadow of a 2019 Proposition 2 1/2 budget override for Melrose that supporters said would help improve financial conditions for the city’s schools.

FROM 2019: 'Yes' Movement Carries Melrose Override Special Election

“The MEA helped the City of Melrose win a Proposition 2 ½ override 3 years ago and secure $5.18 million for the Melrose Public Schools,” Donovan said last week. “Through the mismanagement of this administration, the schools have lost $2.2 million of those monies.”

Donovan said educators are being asked to “bear the burden of Melrose’s historic underfunding of our schools” under current conditions.

She pointed to teacher salaries in some neighboring districts, which state teacher salary data showed outpacing Melrose salaries in the 2019-2020 school year, which is the last year for which data is available.

“We cannot keep settling for less,” Donovan said.

Melrose educators have drawn attention from state and north-of-Boston regional allies both before and after their “work to rule” decision last week.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association is planning to have representation at Monday’s Melrose rally, according to organizers.

Other area unions, including the Malden Education Association have mobilized to back Melrose in various actions so far.

Malden educators, who recently saw their own battle for a new contract end with marathon negotiations after a one-day strike, called on the Melrose Schools to settle their teacher contracts in a social media post on Tuesday of last week.

“Students and educators should be a priority in every municipality,” the Malden Education Association said.

Patch has reached out to McAndrew for comment on the state of contract negotiations following the Melrose Education Association's recent work to rule decision. This article will be updated as comments are available.