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“There’s just a lot of vilification going on,” she added, “so much hostility.”
The Newton teachers strike will keep students out of class for an eighth consecutive school day Tuesday. And parents are angry — at the mayor, the School Committee, the teachers, each other — their frustration mounting as the strike drags on. Discord is rife on social media, in group chats, across email chains, turning neighbor against neighbor. There’s a sense, many Newton parents told the Globe, that the social fabric of the community is being torn apart.
“The division, anger and loss of trust you brought to our city with this strike is unforgivable,” one anonymous poster wrote, in a message directed squarely at the striking teachers, in a private Facebook group for Newton residents.
“I am beyond tired of the theatrics and gamesmanship on BOTH sides,” wrote another.
Most Newton parents who spoke to the Globe would only do so anonymously, fearing social recrimination or retaliation from their children’s teachers if they voiced opposition to the strike. They largely agreed, though, that they love their city, with its stately Victorians and tree-lined streets. And they love their kids’ teachers. Many said they moved here because of the city’s reputation of its public schools.
But they’re at their wits’ end and their patience is fraying, several told the Globe. Arranging child care is onerous and expensive. Their kids are stressed out and anxious. And they’re starting to envy their neighbors who have ponied up tens of thousands of dollars to send their children to private schools.
The strike’s disruption has reminded many parents, including Michelle Acker, whose 15-year-old daughter is a Newton sophomore, of the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools remained closed indefinitely.
“The longer it goes on, it’s very anxiety provoking,” said Acker, a psychologist, who moved to Newton from Brookline in 2006. She said she feels like she’s witnessing a “high-conflict divorce,” where the kids are stuck in the middle.
“At this point,” she added, “I just believe that some level of compromise needs to happen.”
Leaders of the city’s parent teachers organizations have called for civility and compromise, demanding an agreement between the union and Mayor Ruthanne Fuller in an open letter Monday.
“This has gone on for far too long, is keeping our students out of school, and is dividing our city,” the letter said.
Meanwhile, a group of roughly two dozen Newton parents started an online petition Friday encouraging the city and the Newton Teachers Association to work on reaching a compromise while allowing students and teachers to return to their classrooms immediately. More than 1,000 people have signed on, though it’s unclear how many who signed are Newton parents.
“It’s the parents versus teachers, more or less,” said one of the petition’s signatories, Irene Margolin-Katz, a data analyst and mother of a Newton freshman who receives special education services. “I think that people lost a lot of trust in the schools.”
City Councilor Andrea Kelley described a turning tide in the feedback she’s been hearing from residents in recent days. For months most of her constituents were “staunchly on the side of the NTA,” she said, but lately, their tone has shifted.
“Most recently I have seen a shift in the input, hearing now from more residents who oppose the strike,” Kelley said. “Most want to remain anonymous, which normally is a signal of not being accountable, but what I hear is fear of reprisal from neighbors and teachers.”
As the sides remain gridlocked over terms of a new contract, students will stay out of classrooms. The two are expected to return to the bargaining table Tuesday in hopes of reopening schools.
The strike is the longest teacher work stoppage in the state since the 1990s and follows nearly a half dozen others across Massachusetts in the last 20 months. It is illegal for public workers, including educators, to strike in Massachusetts. For each day the union remains on strike, it incurs a $50,000 court-imposed fine. In total, the union now owes $475,000 for the strike that began Jan. 19.
On Monday, a parent joined the case, filing an emergency motion for the court to impose high enough costs to force the union to end the strike. Lital Asher-Dotan, a parent of three Newton students, argued that the strike interfered with her children’s rights and was having detrimental effects on them socially and academically.
The two sides have been deadlocked over several issues, but a cost of living raise for teachers and other staff has the most expensive item on the table. Newton teacher salaries, which averaged $93,000 in 2020-21, are among the top quartile in the state. The union has argued, though, that salaries are not keeping up with the pace of inflation or with those offered by other well-off suburban Boston districts.
The union has claimed the School Committee is not bargaining in good faith and has called on the mayor, who could direct additional municipal funds to the district, to join members at the bargaining table. The School Committee, though, insists it is bargaining sincerely. But it says it cannot afford all of the union’s requests, which, if agreed upon, would require laying off employees.
Newton City Councilor Victoria Danberg emphasized the council’s limited role in negotiations — voting for the city budget — but said ultimately, the residents will have to do their part if teachers are going to get paid as much as she believes they deserve.
“We need to ask the taxpayers to please step up to the plate as they should and better fund our schools and our municipal employees,” Danberg said.
The city is only allowed to raise taxes a certain amount each year without a citywide vote, and the most recent attempt at the ballot box failed last year. Until voters approve a bigger tax increase, the city is constrained, Danberg said, and as the strike has lingered on, the city’s neighborhood groups and social media pages have become full of people on both sides arguing their cases.
“I don’t think people are listening to each other,” Danberg said. “People who are committed to one side or the other have dug their heels in and that’s the reason for where we are. I wish people were listening to one another because I think we’d be a lot farther along.”
Acker’s husband, Dan Bakal, said his support for the striking teachers hasn’t wavered, though he admits, due to his daughter’s age and self-sufficiency, his family has had it “a lot easier than others.” In fact, he still honked his horn in support of the strike while driving past picketing union members Monday.
“It’s definitely been divisive. I really do hope we can come together,” Bakal said, of the impact of the strike on the community. “I do hope once they do reach an agreement that, as challenging as this was, that we can reunite around the role that our educators play.”
James Vaznis of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Deanna Pan can be reached at deanna.pan@globe.com. Follow her @DDpan. Christopher Huffaker can be reached at christopher.huffaker@globe.com. Follow him @huffakingit.
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