Claremont
It was one of several motions the board took up Wednesday, including a 7-0 vote to file an appeal with the Supreme Court following last week’s New Hampshire Public Employee Labor Relations Board decision that ordered the school district to comply with the arbitrator’s decision that said a new schedule implemented at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year violated the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union.
School Board Vice Chairman Chris Irish, along with Chairman Brian Rapp and board member Michelle Pierce were passionately in favor of defying the labor board and keeping the new schedule, referred to as A/B.
Irish loudly proclaimed a number of times he was going to support what he believed was best for the students and made a motion not to comply with the labor relations board ruling and also pursue an appeal to the Supreme Court.
“We can’t, we can’t go backwards and continue to do what is bad for our kids,” Irish said. “I don’t care what the law says, I don’t care what the state says. We know one thing: we were failing our kids.”
Board member Brent Ferland, who along with Becky Ferland, Frank Sprague and Patrick Adrian defeated Irish’s motion 4-3, said he is not against the A/B schedule but the board has been on the wrong side of the issue for more than a year.
Brent Ferland noted that the board has twice lost their motion before an arbitrator and lost again last week when the labor relations board said the district’s action in the matter constituted an unfair labor practice.
“I’m all for an appeal but at some point, we have to respect the laws we play by,” Ferland said. “You don’t want to play by the rules.”
The schedule was changed from four classes taken every day for a semester to alternating classes every other day for a full year based on data that said the old schedule was hurting student achievement.
Sprague, a former principal at Stevens, disputed the board’s contention that the old block schedule was the primary cause of the high failure rate among students and said other socioeconomic factors impact student achievement.
“Hanging all this on the block schedule is ludicrous,” Sprague said. “I’m not buying it.”
Irish said it was true there are other factors, but “we know 4 by 4 was failing.”
“I don’t know that,” Sprague replied.
Former board member Richard Seaman urged the board to reach out to the union to seek a resolution but not to abandon the schedule.
“Let’s get back to getting the parties together,” Seaman said. “Get with the teachers, sit down and work this thing out.”
Seaman went so far as to suggest school not open until they can find a way to keep the new schedule.
Rapp said he does not believe the district bargained away its right to set the schedule when it signed the side agreement with the block schedule wording.
“We only changed the kids’ schedule. We did not change the teachers’ hours or make them work longer,” he said.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
