Cumberland-North Yarmouth (MSAD 51) Staff Picket for Fair Contract

Last week, education technicians and school secretaries with the Maine School Administrative District 51 Education Association held a picket in front of the district’s central office in Cumberland to call on the school board to negotiate a fair contract. The district’s education professionals have been working without a contract since July 1.

“We don’t want to be here doing this, not what we planned for. Sadly, we’re feeling we need the community behind us in order to get the attention of the board,” said Lulu Balzano-Brookes, an ed tech of 23 years who is on the union’s contract negotiations team, according to the Portland Press Herald.

The union and the board of directors have been bargaining since April. Last fall the district called in a contract mediator, but that also failed to reach an agreement.

“Educational support professionals support the students and teachers and parents from MSAD 51, and every day the school board shows all of us they did not support them or their hard work. If they did, they would not let the contract extend to the 280th day,” said Gregory Greenleaf, president of the MSAD 51 Education Association.

The ed techs and secretaries are asking for wage increases that will raise their pay to the same level as neighboring districts and reduce the number of years required to reach the top of the pay scale. The minimum wage for an ed tech in the district is of $17.17 per hour, while ed techs earn a minimum of $18.87 in Falmouth and $21.68 in Yarmouth, according to the Maine Education Association.

“I can’t even count how many have left, usually to neighboring schools that pay more and offer more benefits. Why wouldn’t they go?” said Wendy Burr, an ed tech of the district for 22 years, in an interview with the Press Herald.

The union noted that Greely High School has been ranked the best school in Maine by U.S. News and World Report, but the board’s refusal to budge on raises shows that it does not value the contributions of support professionals to that success.

“It helps me as a teacher to have good ed techs in the classroom,” Andrew Cooke, an English teacher at Greely Middle School who joined the picket line. “It takes a while to become a good secretary, a good ed tech. We don’t want to lose the ones we have to other districts.”

The union has filed for fact finding by an independent entity to examine the claims on both sides. The process is scheduled to begin in March, unless an agreement is reached before that.

Until then, ed techs and secretaries seek broader support from the community whose children they serve.