BEVERLY — Now heading into its third week, the Beverly teachers strike appears to be as intractable as ever.
School Committee President Rachael Abell said Sunday night that the committee has voted to stop negotiating with teachers unless they return to school, and to begin withholding teachers’ pay for days not worked.
If teachers do not return to school, Abell said, the next step is to enter the fact-finding process that has been ordered by a state board.
But the Beverly Teachers Association says teachers will not return to school without a contract and will not take part in fact-finding because the process would take too long and result in no binding decision.
That leaves the strike heading into its 18th day on Monday, and 11th day with no school for the district’s 4,600 students, with one side saying it will negotiate but not fact-find and the other side saying it will fact-find but not negotiate.
Beverly Teachers Association Co-President Julia Brotherton said the union has been told by the mediator that negotiations will continue on Monday at 1 p.m. But Abell said that unless teachers go back to school, the next step is a hearing before the fact-finder, which is not scheduled until the following Monday, Dec. 2.
Another bleak sign is that the two sides cannot even agree on the dollar amount of the other’s proposals. The BTA said its proposal was actually $1 million less than what the School Committee was offering. The School Committee said the opposite, that the union’s proposals were $3.3 million higher than the School Committee’s offer.
“It is untrue to say the BTA proposal is lower than the (School Committee’s) proposal,” Abell said in a statement.
Brotherton explained the discrepancy by saying, “The School Committee is trying to mislead the public by including our increase to their math but not including theirs.”
The standoff marked a disappointing end to a weekend that included a sense of momentary optimism when the two sides agreed to meet face-to-face for the first time since a mediator was appointed three weeks ago. About 100 people gathered outside Hannah School on Sunday night for a candlelight ceremony in support of teachers, hoping for news of a resolution while negotiations went on inside the school.
But the news that eventually arrived was the same as the news from the previous 17 days: The strike continues.