Newton Teachers Strike Cancels School For 7th Day

NEWTON, MA — Newton Public Schools are closed for a seventh straight school day on Monday after an exchange of contract proposals between the School Committee and Newton Teachers Association did little to alleviate the acrimony or sufficiently close the gap between the sides on several key issues amid the ongoing strike.

"The city of Newton simply cannot afford what the union is asking for without causing great harm to the city's residents," Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said in a statement Sunday night. "We are offering our teachers a contract that honors their valuable service in line with peer school districts. Similar to the superintendent, I cannot endorse a union contract that makes cuts to our current level of school/city services or to our current school/city employees to fund it."

According to Fuller, the NTA's demands are unsustainable without more revenue for the city. She said that while she is "committed to trying again and putting another override proposal in front of our voters" because the city voted down a Proposition 2 1/2 tax override last spring the city cannot commit funds it does not have without taking them from another department or service.

"We will stay true to our core principles of prioritizing the budget for the Newton Public Schools, providing competitive wages and benefits to valued school and city employees, and having sustainable budgets without layoffs," she said. "We can't and won't kick the can down the road only to face a fiscal crisis in the future.

"We are unwilling to sign an unsustainable contract that results in teacher layoffs. Similarly, we are unwilling to lay off police, firefighters and other municipal employees to pay for a contract we cannot afford."

An NTA spokesperson said the union's latest offer included "reasonable, affordable and necessary proposals rooted in honest and fair compromise." The union said its members will not return to the classrooms until a new contract agreement is in place that would raise wages, place social workers in every school, increase mental health support for students and improve parental leave provisions for teachers.

"NTA members will be on picket lines Monday and continuing to advocate for what our students and educators need and deserve," the NTA said earlier on Sunday.

The NTA also sought to push back on the School Committee's characterization of its latest proposal being a "take-it-or-leave-it" offer or that the union negotiating team "walked away" from the bargaining table on Sunday.

"The NTA did not walk away from bargaining," the NTA said. "We received no clarifying questions from the School Committee. Instead, they gave us a counter-proposal, in essence rejecting ours."

Newton teachers had been working without a contract for five months before 98 percent of members voted to strike on Jan. 18.

Superintendent Anna Nolin said all school buildings will remain closed — with all school-related activities such as athletics, arts clubs, after-school programs and community education programs canceled — for the duration of the strike.

After being hit with $375,000 in fines over the first week of the walkout for what is an illegal strike under Massachusetts law, there was a reprieve in fines over the weekend meant to spur further negotiations.

But another $50,000 was to be assessed to the NTA if the strike was not called off by 8 p.m. on Sunday.

"I really hope this does not continue into another week," Judge Christopher Barry-Smith said on Friday. "(If it does) I'll consider anew the concept that these fines need to be more."

All school days missed during the strike will have to be made at some point during this academic year.