SWAMPSCOTT — Following more than a year of negotiations — and in the midst of financial uncertainty and the COVID-19 pandemic — the town’s School Committee has approved a new three-year contract with the teachers union.
The contract with the Swampscott Education Association (SEA), ratified Wednesday night by the Swampscott School Committee, gives a 1.75 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase each year. Its ratification ends a period of several months in which teachers have been working without a solid contract.
“We are relieved to have our contract settled after working towards this goal for the past 15 months,” said the union in a statement. “We would like to thank the School Committee for ratifying this contract during a pandemic, unilaterally displaying their support for teachers, and the work we have put in as we entered the year without an updated contract and through remote learning and school closure.”
Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald was the only one to vote against ratification at the meeting, and said it was not the right time to give a 1.75 percent COLA raise, especially amidst municipal revenue problems and the COVID-19 pandemic. He asked the School Committee to take more time to consider the implications of such an increase.
“Swampscott really does have some financial challenges. Coupled with this, we’re all faced with the challenges of this pandemic. Our national economy is in shambles, our state economy is in shambles, we have state budget experts estimating the state is going to be off $6 billion in revenue,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s going to trickle down to every city and town, and Swampscott is going to feel that burden.”
Fitzgerald said he understands “the importance of morale” among the town’s teachers, but can’t support the contract in the middle of the “crisis.”
“We have businesses that have been closed for months. We have families that have been impacted. So, when I think about what we need to do right now to hold on to jobs and protect employees, I can’t support a contract that has this level of an increase right now,” Fitzgerald said.
The rest of the voters on the School Committee supported the contract.
“Extending the contract and paying them what they should be paid is part of what we need to do,” said School Committee member Suzanne Wright.
Wright said there will certainly be “tough decisions” regarding the budget in the immediate future and in the next few years, but “the teachers deserve to have a contract and a fair COLA, and we’re going to have to shift and talk about planning and making tough decisions to make up the deficit.” She said she has heard the town administrator say he expects a recommended $760,000 cut to the originally proposed education budget this year.
School Committee Chairwoman Gargi Cooper said she felt “odd” about Fitzgerald’s dissent.
“I worry about the fact that the School Committee is not being supported by our town administrator, because I think our partnership has grown very strong over the last few years,” Cooper said.
The agreement had been tentatively reached last week, but was ultimately tabled until Wednesday. According to Cooper, many residents had reached out to express their disappointment with the delay, and she tried to answer the correspondences apologetically, explaining the School Committee needed time to think over the contract thoroughly.
Leading up to Wednesday night’s vote, contract talks had been contentious at times, stalling in November after both sides accused the other of being unprofessional. Contract talks resumed briefly in January, before starting again in April with virtual negotiation sessions.
In another statement, the SEA said the contract includes low raises “that would not have been accepted outside of our current situation,” and that the union had been seeking 3 percent raises, but chose to compromise because of financial uncertainty surrounding the pandemic.