More than 100 Arlington teachers picket outside high school

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Arlington teachers picketed along Massachusetts Avenue in front of Arlington High School and the district administration offices Thursday afternoon. Photo by Brock Parker.

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

After working two years without a new contract, more than 100 teachers picketed in front of Arlington High School Thursday demanding pay raises and carrying signs saying "Teachers love Arlington, too."

“We shouldn’t be fighting over the crumbs,” said Ron Colosi, president of the Arlington Education Association. “We're here because we like working with young people. We know we aren't going to get rich."

Colosi said the teachers' last contract expired in 2009 and the district is losing teachers to neighboring communities who pay more than Arlington.

While the negotiations with the school district have been underway, teachers have not been receiving cost of living pay raises, and the lack of progress in negotiations has lead the union to call in a state-appointed mediator to assist, he said.

“We’ve gotten to a point where we really don’t feel a whole lot of participation from the School Committee,” Colosi said.

School Committee Chairman Joe Curro said the district’s negotiation team met with the mediator in the past two weeks for the first time since the union rejected a contract proposal last fall.

“We hope we can reach some kind of settlement,” Curro said.

Curro said the school district negotiates teacher salaries and working conditions with the teachers and Arlington’s Town Manager Brian Sullivan negotiates the health care for the teachers and other town unions. Curro said the contract Arlington schools offered teachers last fall was intended to work as a companion contract to a health care proposal made by the town that would have shifted the teacher’s health care benefits to the state’s Group Insurance Commission.

But last fall Arlington teachers rejected the district’s contract and the town’s public employees unions rejected the proposal to join the GIC because of concerns with co-pay levels and a lack of confidence in the financial stability of the health care system with the state facing a large deficit.

Arlington has been seeking to shift public employees to the GIC for more than two years in an effort to save about $4 million in health care costs. The town is facing a deficit of about $3.8 million in the coming fiscal year and cuts and layoffs are planned for schools and public safety departments unless a property tax increase is approved or a pay-as-you-throw trash program is adopted.

Colosi said the town’s public employees unions have submitted a proposal to the town that could save money on health care costs, but he said he could not discuss the details of the proposal.

At the same time, Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed to require unions across the state to make the switch to the GIC or agree to other changes to their health care that would result in similar savings.

Curro said the school district is watching to see what happens when the town next meets with Arlington’s public employee unions to discuss health care benefits on April 6.

--Brock.globe@gmail.com