School Committee and NTA hold first mediation session since January 8.
On the evening of January 19, the Newton Public Schools community received two updates on the NPS/NTA negotiations: an update from the School Committee’s negotiation team and an update from the Mayor.
The School Committee’s update informed the NPS community that the Massachusetts Superior Court has ordered the NTA to announce by 3PM on Sunday, January 21 that the strike has ended and ordered employees to return to work on Monday. On January 19, the School Committee and NTA met in a mediation session for the first time since January 8. The School Committee’s update included the following about that session:
- Both sides spent time separately with a new state mediator.
- The School Committee team suggested an in-person meeting with the NTA team to ensure that everyone is working with the same set of facts. The NTA declined to meet in-person on this topic.
- The NTA prioritized the following: teacher evaluations, tuition-free attendance for staff children, beginning of year start date, and parental leave. The School Committee team responded to all four items.
- The School Committee team gave a proposal to the NTA on the key issues of healthcare, parental leave, and time on learning, among other issues.
- The School Committee team will be meeting all day on Saturday, January 20.
The School Committee team stated that the strike does nothing to further negotiations and only harms students.
The Mayor’s update about the Superior Court’s ruling (see Fig City News article), emphasized that “if the negotiations over the weekend do not lead to a settled contract or the NTA chooses to ignore the judge’s order and continues its strike on Monday, the Superior Court has set a hearing for Monday, January 22 at noon.”