Dear Editor:

The Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor Board failed to reach an agreement with the teachers on the future of public education in Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor, choosing instead to have a judicial panel and hire the board legal counsel, all at the expense of the taxpayer, to discuss the now expired teacher contract.

The school board and the Boothbay Region Education Association (which represents the teachers) met approximately six times to discuss the teachers’ contract, which expired on Sept. 1, 2014. Those meetings did not result in an agreement, and the issue is now in what is known as the “fact-finding” process.

Fact-finding is a process in which a third-party group, assigned by the Maine Labor Board, will listen to both sides and make a recommendation on the issues of the outstanding contract. An executive session hearing is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2015. The Maine Labor Board has up to 30 days to issue its recommendation.

The outstanding issues that were not agreed upon include wages and healthcare benefits, as well as compliance with the new teacher evaluation law.

Teachers in Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor are the lowest paid in AOS 98.

Georgetown, Southport and Edgecomb all have more competitive salary plans, which pay their teachers significantly higher starting salaries.

The fact-finding process is costly to the taxpayers and, frankly, is unnecessary. The continued approval by the region’s taxpayers of the school’s budget is appreciated and a clear mandate from both communities to support the teachers, students and public education in this region.

The BREA does not understand why the school board does not listen to that mandate.

During discussions with the school board, the BREA recognized it would take approximately three years to move teachers’ salaries closer to their counterparts in other districts in order to work within the constraints of the board’s budget.

The BREA believes that our students are at the center of everything we do, and we need to be able to retain and attract the best teachers possible. If schools just a few miles down the road pay their teachers more, why will prospective teachers apply to, and currently-employed teachers continue to work for, the Boothbay Region elementary and high schools?

Mark Gorey

President of the BREA