ERVING — More than a dozen Erving Elementary School staff members attended Tuesday’s School Committee meeting to continue to advocate for better pay in what the School Committee chair claims is “one of the highest-paid elementary schools in Franklin County.”
Erving teachers began the school year without a contract. They last advocated for better compensation at a School Committee meeting on Sept. 20. This advocacy was initiated after staff and the School Committee “could not quite come together on an agreement for different points from both sides” after negotiations extended from January through May, lead negotiator and sixth grade teacher Mark Burnett explained previously.
The current impasse, Burnett summarized, relates primarily to the lack of a wage increase at or above 2%, falling below the standard for town employees and the reasonable expectation to offset an increasing cost of living.
At the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting, protesters filed into the Erving Elementary School cafeteria clad in T-shirts bearing the phrase, “Erving teachers are deserving.” Before opening the meeting’s public hearing section, School Committee Chair Jennifer Eichorn thanked staff members “for their dedication and hard work.” She expressed that everyone present has been “very lucky to work for the town of Erving,” citing benefits such as “extremely low class sizes,” weekly collaboration and professional development, paid resources, “generous health insurance plans” and “exceptionally generous pay.” Erving Elementary School, she noted, is “one of the highest-paid elementary schools in Franklin County.”
“It certainly is a wonderful place to work as we have not had a classroom teacher leave the district other than retirements for over 10 years, to my knowledge,” Eichorn said, closing out her statement. “I am hoping to continue this trend of being thankful and looking at the positives as we emerge from the pandemic.”
The School Committee allowed up to five members of the public to speak for two minutes each. Beginning with fifth grade teacher and lead spokesperson Elizabeth DeSorgher, a script was passed between three readers as allotted times expired.
“It breaks my heart to stand in front of you today justifying my professional worth,” DeSorgher told the School Committee. “I paid out of pocket to become a highly qualified and educated teacher. I proudly wear the badge of a classroom teacher. And I’d like to believe that you are proud to be a part of this distinguished organization sitting in front of you tonight.”
Picking up where DeSorgher left off, Burnett emphasized a magnitude of commitment teachers embrace that goes “above and beyond” what their formal hours dictate.
“Technically, our work day begins at 8:15, but you can be sure that many of us show up earlier,” Burnett said. “And technically, our work day ends at 3:30, but I assure you that most of us are here much, much, much later. And when we do finally walk out of the building, it is often with our plan books, laptops and papers in tow.”
Reading the speech’s final segment, preschool teacher Kathryn Buell stressed that staff members are “beyond disappointed that a respectable, reasonable, fair agreement has not happened yet.”
“At this particular juncture, I am not confident that you are putting the students first and I question your motives,” Buell told the School Committee. “It is naive to think that Erving teachers working without a fair and worthy contract isn’t impacting the overall morale and success of this school.”
Later in the period, Kathleen Bridgewater, who said she taught for nearly 30 years at Erving Elementary School, used her “good sense of what has happened in the past” to put the current situation in perspective.
“We need a harmonious working situation,” she said. “The real respect comes, in the end, in paying people fairly. … Wonderful words are terrific. (But) being told you’ve got it better than everybody else is not really a way of saying, ‘We respect you.’ It’s saying, ‘You’re being greedy.’ That’s how it sounds to me and that’s not what Erving has been about.”
The School Committee reminded those in attendance that negotiations could not be discussed at the open meeting, but must be considered in executive session conversations. Eichorn responded instead by reiterating her appreciation for the teachers.
“I would just like to address again that we thank you all for your dedication and that there’s absolutely no doubt in our minds that you all work extremely hard,” Eichorn said. “We are very happy with everything that you all do.”
Reach Julian Mendoza
at 413-930-4231 or
jmendoza@recorder.com.