AMHERST — A petition for mediation is being filed by the Amherst Regional School Committee after what it contends is a stalemate has developed in contract negotiations with the Amherst Pelham Educators Association.
The announcement was made by Ben Herrington, the committee’s chairman, via a statement issued by the school district’s central office on June 24 noting that the elementary and regional education budgets adopted are already using $1.3 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund grants to preserve existing programs and staff positions.
“The compensation increases that the APEA is requesting just in the first year of the contract are $11 million more than the total remaining ESSER funds available to the districts, and $12.6 million more than the total average annual increase in tax revenues in Amherst, Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury combined,” Herrington wrote. “As a result, the Regional School Committee has decided to file a petition for mediation.”
The union, though, disputes that the sides are at an impasse, noting that some tentative agreements have been reached on proposals presented by both sides since traditional bargaining resumed in the winter, and asked the School Committee not to cancel June 29 negotiations, a request that was ignored.
“The School Committee simply wants to move forward with their budget without regard to the current crisis in education, economic conditions, and their legal obligation to bargain with us progressively as is their requirement under the law,” the union said in a statement early this month.
In addition, the union said the request for mediation came out of the blue and that it remained prepared for further negotiations: “We approach these meetings hoping that we can work with the School Committee to find common ground to ensure the best working conditions for our staff and a great learning environment for our students.”
The current union contract expired on July 1, 2021.
The School Committee began bargaining with three units of the union, representing teachers, paraeducators and clerical staff, using the Interest Based Bargaining style in December, aimed at identifying collaboratively areas of shared interest. This was broken off in February when the sides couldn’t reach consensus on continuing with it, and the two sides moved to traditional bargaining where proposals and counter-proposals are developed and presented.
The School Committee says the union’s original demands for new compensation totaled over $3 million per year, or more than $2.4 million more than what the school districts had budgeted, and that talks had focused on attempting to move toward a sustainable compromise more compatible with what the districts and towns could afford.
At the last negotiating session, on June 22, however, the union presented a new proposal that included compensation increases totaling over $15 million per year, an increase of $12 million over the original proposal.
The union says it has focused on negotiating a living wage for paraeducators, asking for 7% increases, which was countered with an offer of 2.5% by the School Committee that was later reduced to 2% in what the union said was “clearly a vindictive move.” The union also cites a crisis in education, including burnout of staff members, that needs to be addressed.
According to the union statement, “We are willing to stand with them to fight for the funding our schools need. There is no deficit in financing the education of our students when we look at the amount of state and federal funds being poured into school districts.”
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
