Much has been written and communicated with Newton residents about the financial and political events surrounding the current contract negotiation between the School Committee and Newton Teachers Association (NTA). While privately employed individuals generally experience behind closed doors the victories, losses, and emotions of their compensation negotiations, public union employees have their negotiations play out in the public space. Fig City News spoke to two Newton Public Schools educators who are also Newton residents to hear their views about being on the front lines of Newton’s classrooms, and how contract negotiations can affect their interactions with the community.
Elana Cutler has been a 6th grade math teacher at Brown Middle School for eleven years. Ms. Cutler was raised in Newton and attended Peirce, Day, and Newton North as a student. Prior to being hired at Brown, she was a math and science teacher at a private Jewish day school. She cites as inspiration for her career “four incredible female math teachers” she had during her 6th through 9th grades in Newton. Ms. Cutler said that a major reason for moving to Brown was the opportunity to be part of a larger math department and work with more colleagues. She presently lives in Nonantum, where her child will begin Kindergarten at Lincoln-Eliot next fall. NPS parent Barbara Mauger told Fig City News “My son adjusted well to middle school math in [Ms. Cutler’s] classroom. He liked her and we found her to be an involved and caring teacher.”
Ms. Cutler has been an active member of the NTA, serving as a union building representative for Brown, which entails answering colleague’s questions about their workplace and contract, and serving as a liaison with the union’s main office. She is currently a member of the negotiations team and has participated in campaign standouts as well as community outreach events at farmer’s markets. Regarding collective bargaining, Ms. Cutler said, “It’s uncomfortable to be asking for more money in the public eye” and hearing reactions such as “you already get this, that, and the other thing.” She cited the loss of spending power due to inflation in recent years, as well as an increase in healthcare costs, as a “make-or-break” situation for many educators. Ms. Cutler reiterated the NTA’s public statements regarding the need for higher cost-of-living-adjustments (COLAs) than are presently being offered.
Ms. Cutler emphasized that her “overall experience in Newton has been wonderful, and parents of students are supportive and grateful.” However, one of the more dispiriting comments she sometimes hears is “if Newton doesn’t pay as much as elsewhere, then go teach in another district.” She believes that “teachers become invested in students, their families, and the community in which they teach, so just switching districts if another location has better benefits isn’t an ideal solution.” Ms. Cutler agreed that a public school teacher’s situation could be analogous to someone in the private sector owning a small business and investing years in it, vs. an employee at a large corporation who would move to a different company for higher compensation without much sentimentality.
Ms. Cutler cited having full-time mental health professionals in each school building as an important non-compensation NTA contract point. When asked whether such professionals were available to hire, given the overall demand for mental health workers, even if the money was in the NPS budget, she said that NPS “already has several good people in the district, many of whom are part-time and we could make more use of [them] if they were focused on a specific community, such as one particular elementary school.” She said the NTA’s original proposal was for a social worker in each building, but the union has since become amenable to having psychologists or guidance counselors filling that role.
Ms. Cutler elaborated that “education is getting more and more complex, and expensive, there has to be a willingness to invest more in public schools to maintain them,” and hypothesized that the operating override ballot question might have passed if it had been solely for NPS, and had more voters understood these needs. She emphasized the importance of ongoing communication among the City, educators, and residents in helping people understand today’s educational environment. “There’s a large community that has raised their kids in Newton, but don’t have kids in the system anymore, and might not feel as connected.”
Jenny Robertson has been an English teacher at Newton South High School for eight years, teaching both sophomore English as well as a senior elective, Women in Literature. Ms. Robertson moved to Newton from Northampton, where she was an attorney practicing family law, and she now lives in West Newton, where her two children attend Franklin Elementary School. She “knew she always wanted to be a teacher” and entered Newton’s teaching residency prior to joining Newton South’s faculty.
Ms. Robertson demonstrates passion for teaching, particularly educating students about the power of language and expression. Her Women in Literature course includes authors that “may not be a part of a standard curriculum,” including Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, and Alison Bechtel. Ms. Robertson conveys to her students that “we tell our stories to live,” and agreed there are some similarities between that notion and the religious concept of having others bear witness to validate that a life is fully lived. She cited “helping people refine their voice” as a common calling across her legal and education careers. Ms. Robertson said her Newton South English department colleagues are “some of the smartest people I’ve ever met in my life.”
NPS parent Kwok Matthew Lai told Fig City News, “My son had Jenny for sophomore English. He was a bit unsure of the class at first since Jenny taught with a different style than he was used to, but she quickly won him over in her selection of lesson plans, class discussions, in-class music choices, and ultimately as a teacher overall. She ended up being one of his favorites at South.”
Similar to Ms. Cutler, she said “99% of parents are wonderful;” however, Ms. Robertson cautioned “when there’s conflict, such as in this negotiation,” many give their opinions about workplace topics they may not know much about. One of these, she said, is the time demands put on educators. Ms. Robertson stated she has over 90 students and “you’re doing well if you can grade 3 papers in an hour.” She said that the majority of grading and lesson planning must occur outside the work day because “during school hours when we are not teaching our classes, our only prep time is often instead utilized for assigned duties to help struggling students, mandatory faculty, department and/or IEP meetings, necessary communication with parents or counselors…the list goes on.” Additionally, “teenagers have constant needs every day, and they’ll be trying to speak with you any spare moment you have.” Ms. Robertson said that there is a “feeling of always being behind,” but teaching is a “labor of love, and you love to see student improvement.”
When asked about the differences between compensation negotiation as a lawyer versus a teacher, Ms. Robertson clarified that she was part of the state’s legal services team as a family lawyer, and therefore was also part of a union during that time. She drew distinctions between those negotiations and the ones between Newton and the NTA, however, describing the former as more collegial. Ms. Robertson also cited the COLA gap between the School Committee and NTA and rising healthcare costs as primary concerns of educators.
While Ms. Robertson appreciates how social media is an effective tool for bringing people together to solve problems, she is frustrated by some criticism of educators she sees “when we advocate for ourselves,” or when commenters “make claims without understanding the nuances of a particular issue.” For example, she bristles at the statement, “not everyone can afford to live in Newton” when the intersection of educator compensation and housing policies arises. While the statement might be mathematically accurate, “the tone of it conveys a devaluing of the skill and care we apply to our craft, the emotional connection we feel with Newton families, and how our labor is interwoven with the betterment of the community.”
Ms. Robertson summarized her views as, “If you really want to solve problems, stay curious. Talk to teachers, get their perspectives, learn from us. We are with your kids everyday, and we are invested in their well-being and education.”
Ed. Note: The educators in this article spoke with Fig City News in their capacities as Newton residents, and not on behalf of Newton Public Schools or the Newton Teachers Association.
