SALEM – Motorists driving past the Mt. Abram High School this morning were greeted by approximately 25 students holding signs alongside Route 142, following a walk out to protest the school board and stalled teacher contract negotiations.
Organizers of the “Mt. Abram Angels” said they developed the idea after seeing other schools conduct sit-in protest events. Junior Dakota Bailey had the idea of conducting a sit-in at Mt. Abram, but other members suggested walking out instead. The students organized themselves over Facebook under the direction of four “Archangels” and claim to represent approximately 150 of the 275 students at the high school.
“We’re willing to accept the consequences to be here,” organizer and sophomore Brandon Haines said. He said that other students supported the effort but had been unable to attend the event due to them being seniors working to graduate, Foster Technology Center students attending classes in Farmington, or being asked to remain in the building by staff.
Haines said the Abram Angels were advocating for two causes: the complete “reconstruction” of the school board, which would include replacing all 14 directors and settling the teacher contract issue. While the Angels didn’t disagree with all of the directors all of the time, Haines said, they held the entire board responsible for previous decisions.
“If they haven’t worked in the past,” Haines said, “they won’t in the future.”
Teachers represented by the Mt. Abram Teachers Association have been working without a contract since the end of the 2012-13 school year, with negotiations and an arbitration process stretching over the last three years. The district and association are agreed on most points, including wage increases, with health insurance premium coverage and a guarantee to avoid salary freezes during negotiations remaining the two sticking points.
The school board supports a 5 percent reduction in district contributions to health insurance, with teachers picking up 85 percent coverage of individual’s premium and 75 percent coverage of a family plan premium. The association has proposed 87.5 percent and 77.5 percent rates, respectively. Both sides have cited arbitrator recommendations in support of their positions: the school board’s 5 percent reduction was recommended by a three-member arbitration panel in 2014, while the association’s proposal is positioned midway between that recommendation and the 0 percent recommended by the Maine Labor Relations Board in 2013.
The association also wants to contractually prohibit salary freezes during future negotiations. Historically, the board has not implemented salary freezes, which prevent teachers from receiving step raises after a contract ends, but had not been contractually mandated to do so. In a statement released last month, the school board said that a contractual prohibition on salary freezes was not common in school districts and the issue could “contribute to another prolonged negotiation.”
The prolonged negotiations have led to tension between some members of the MSAD 58 communities and the school board. A petition calling for board member Daniel Worcester’s ouster as chairman has been repeatedly cited at recent board meetings, with the board responding by decrying “recent attacks on the chairman of the MSAD 58 Board of Directors” in its April statement. More recently, Mt. Abram High School math teacher Brian Twitchell informed the board that he intended to seek employment outside of the district, citing a recent change in his previously-held opinion that the board and community “valued and honored the dedicated teachers of this district.”
Tuesday, protesting students said they also wanted to see four student-director seats on the school board, one for each MBHS grade level. Non-voting, student representatives are common on Maine school boards, and the MSAD 58 board has recently discussed adding students to the board.
Freshman student and Angel organizer Brooke Brown said that she didn’t believe that “the school board had much interaction with the students,” a sentiment that a number of other students at the protest echoed.
“How can they affect our education if they’re not here?” Haines said.
At one point, Principal Marco Aliberti emerged from the high school and spoke with the students. After saying that he “appreciated their thoughts and concerns,” he expressed concern with the unattended students and their proximity to the road. He offered to bring any students that wanted to leave back into the school, and then took the names of everyone in order to contact their parents. The students, who in most cases said their parents were aware of their intent to protest, stayed by the road and provided the information.
Students said they intended to come to school the next day, per usual.
