BEVERLY — Two School Committee members are criticizing their fellow members over their handling of the Beverly teachers strike.
In post on Facebook on Saturday, School Committee member Kimberley Coelho said some committee members “do not want to settle a contract.”
“Instead, (they) feel more concerned about breaking the union’s spirits and dividing our community,” Coelho said. “I feel the legal advice of our counsel is wrong and only delays reopening schools. With all of this nonsense, what kind of school community will remain?”
Another School Committee member, Kaarin Robinson, said on Facebook that she did not appreciate her name being signed to a School Committee update on the strike without her permission.
The update said, “While we may not always agree and our votes to proceed are not always unanimous, we are one united School Committee all working to reach an agreement with our educators.”
Robinson posted the update with her name crossed out in red.
Robinson also said that a fellow School Committee member on Saturday “may have been made to feel that her voice does not, in fact, matter. When in fact it does, just as much as any elected official.”
In a press conference on Saturday night outside Hannah School, teachers said the School Committee had yet to respond to a proposal that teachers made on Friday. BTA Co-President Andrea Sherman and paraprofessional Paul Drake said the union is actually asking for less money than the School Committee is offering by phasing in raises.
“We’re just baffled by this,” Drake said. “That they would rather keep our schools closed than agree to a proposal that costs less for the city of Beverly and pays more to Beverly educators who sorely need it.”
Governor calls strikes ‘unacceptable’
Gov. Maura Healey on Saturday called the ongoing teacher strikes in Beverly and Marblehead “unacceptable” and urged all parties to reach agreements so that students can be back in school on Monday.
“It is unacceptable that students have been out of school for over two weeks,” Healey said in a statement released Saturday evening. “It’s hurting our young people, parents and families above all else. Students need to be back in school on Monday.”
“I have spoken to all parties, and I believe they are at a place where they should be able to reach an agreement this weekend, and they should do so,” Healey added. “If they don’t reach that agreement, they should ensure that students can return to the classroom on Monday while these negotiations continue.”
Healey said she and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll will continue to request updates throughout the weekend.
Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Department of Labor said Saturday that a fact-finding hearing on the Beverly strike will be held “no later” than Dec. 2 if an agreement is not reached by Sunday at 6 p.m.
A judge has ordered that the fact-finding hearing take place if the Sunday deadline is not met. But the Beverly Teachers Association has said it will not participate in the process. A judge has already fined the BTA for striking, which is illegal for public employees in Massachusetts.
Beverly School Committee President Racheal Abell said the delay for the fact-finding hearing would lock “us into a holding pattern that would hurt students and cause greater harm to families who struggled over the last two weeks to find child care.”
“We must reach a deal before 6 p.m. tomorrow and get our community back in their learning environments on Monday,” Abell said.
Students have missed 10 days of school since the strike began Nov. 8.
School Committee proposed Prop. 2 1/2 override
The School Committee has proposed that a Proposition 2 1/2 override election be held in 2026 to determine if voters would agree to higher taxes to pay for teacher raises.
School Committee President Rachael Abell said an override would be needed for the city to be able to afford additional wage increases for both teachers and paraprofessionals in the final year of a proposed four-year contract.
“Since the totality of the BTA wage demands is beyond the city’s resources, we are suggesting to our partner educators in the BTA that we agree on some conditional additional wage increases for both teachers and paraprofessionals in Fiscal Year 2028 that, of necessity, would only be possible with the successful passage of a Proposition 2 ½ override in the November 2026 election,” Abell said in a statement Friday evening.
Abell said the School Committee’s latest proposal also includes an increase to six weeks in both paid parental leave and family sick leave by the end of the contract. The offer also includes $3,000 more to the longest-tenured paraprofessionals, she said.
Abell said the School Committee was waiting to hear back from the teachers union.
“We very much hope to have a deal tonight,” she said.
Earlier in the day, the Beverly Teachers Association held a press conference in which parents and a student blasted Mayor Mike Cahill and the School Committee for failing to come to an agreement with teachers.
“Quite frankly I’m appalled with what is happening with the strike right now,” Beverly High School senior Braden Willenbrock said outside Hannah School during a break in the negotiations.
Willenbrock was one of dozens of members of the public who were allowed by the BTA into its room to observe negotiations on Friday. (The two sides sit in separate rooms with a mediator going back and forth with their proposals.)
Willenbrock said he spent 4 1/2 hours in the room on Friday and the teachers “got nothing” in terms of meaningful proposals from the School Committee.
“I’m a proud youth in this city and seeing the people who are supposed to be our representation, and who we voted for, act like this and treat our teachers who are the foundation and backbone of this community is appalling,” Willenbrock said.
Several parents also criticized the School Committee and Cahill. Nicole Roikola, who has two children in the Beverly public schools, said the School Committee has been “dishonest” in its portrayal of the negotiations and said teachers have the support of the community.
“Keep going teachers. Keep fighting,” Roikola said. “We are here. We have you’re back and we’re going to support you.”
In a statement earlier in the day, Abell congratulated Gloucester for settling its strike on Friday and said the Beverly School Committee’s latest offer “puts us in a position to be next up if the union is willing to back off of its unyielding financial demands.”
Under the proposal, Abell said the highest-earning teacher would make $124,281 in the fourth year of the contract, while the highest-earning paraprofessional would make $42.77 per hour.