Peabody teachers to picket over lack of contract

PEABODY – Peabody public school teachers are going into their second year without a contract and they are determined to let the public know about it.”It’s been two years and two years is too long,” said Peabody Veterans Memorial High School English teacher Kim Catron. “It’s not good for us, it’s not good for the students, and it’s not good for the city.”Catron, the Contract Action Team’s spokesperson, said their mission is to increase their visibility to the community and community leaders. In an effort to do so, the group of teachers will demonstrate with picket signs outside of Peabody City Hall every day, Monday through Friday, for the entire month of September. They have also started a letter campaign to business owners and parents, among other initiatives.”By the end of September, our hope is that every teacher would have sat outside of City Hall,” said Catron. “We are trying to make our unity shown and let people see we are in this together. A lot of people didn’t know we worked all last year without a contract?We were very quiet about it.”But, quiet, says Catron, the teachers can be no more, which is why they began their demonstrations during Superintendent Milton Burnett’s administrative convocation.Bruce Nelson, President of the Peabody Federation of Teachers, was invited, like years past, to speak on behalf of the teachers.”I encouraged them all to stand strong in Peabody,” said Nelson, who noted that many teachers leave the city to pursue higher paying positions in other communities.”Peabody has for years been a very strong school system,” he continued. “We send graduates to top colleges and universities throughout the country and the main reason for that is our teachers. I don’t believe teachers in Peabody are doing anything less or less well than teachers in other communities, and they deserve to be paid and have a fair and equitable contract.”The School Committee and the Peabody Federation of Teachers have been in negotiations for quite some time. After seeing little progress, both sides agreed to hire a mediator last May. With two more mediation sessions scheduled this month and one for Oct. 1, Nelson hopes things will wrap up sooner, rather than later.”The frustration is gradually becoming anger,” he said of how teachers are dealing with the process. “They look around and see people leaving the system?and getting substantial pay increases.”Nelson noted one former Peabody teacher who left the system after teaching their first year. That teacher reportedly got the same job in a similar community with a $9,600 increase in salary.Both the School Committee and union representatives say they’re working hard to come to a fair agreement.”We are trying to form a contract that recognizes and respects the talent of our teachers and balance it to the means of the community,” said School Committee member Dave McGeney last week. “We’re continuing to make progress.”Catron said that the ongoing negotiations are taking a toll on teachers.”We just want our contracts so we can put 100 percent focus into what we want to do,” she said. “It just pulls us away from everything else.”Catron said students are not feeling the impact, but rather their families.”We are 150 percent dedicated,” she said. “All of this stuff essentially takes away from our family time. I work, then do work at home for school, then I’m picketing City Hall for an hour when I should be picking up my daughter at school?That’s a lot of time to be taken away from our families to get something that is rightfully ours in the first place.”