Bangor teachers start school year without contract

BANGOR – A month into the new school year, the city’s teachers still don’t have a contract.

The Bangor Education Association and the school committee have been unable to hammer out a new agreement, according to Cyndy Fish, chief negotiator for the approximately 375 teachers represented by the union.

The BEA is striving to make sure “no teacher takes a cut in pay when both salary and insurance are taken into consideration,” she said.

Teachers have been calling attention to the issue by attending school committee meetings en masse, wearing buttons that say “Blue Ribbon Educators Deserve Blue Ribbon Benefits,” and affixing to their cars signs with the message, “Another Blue Ribbon Educator Working Without a Contract.”

The wording refers to Bangor High School’s designation by the U.S. Department of Education last spring as a “Blue Ribbon School.” Teachers throughout the system were told that “everyone contributes to blue ribbon education,” Fish said.

The BEA represents more than 600 employees, including education technicians and support staff such as custodians, secretaries and maintenance workers. None of them has a contract.

Union representatives met with the school committee several times during the spring and summer and again earlier this month, Fish said.

Teachers have been polled to determine “what they are willing to do to help settle the contract” if the next meeting fails to yield an agreement, Fish said. The date of the next meeting has not yet been determined.

Refusing to put in extra hours or to serve on committees without compensation, participating in sit-ins at City Hall, and talking to the media are among teachers’ options, according to Fish.

Members will be “professional about how we get community support.” she said.

Once the data have been tabulated, the BEA will contact the school committee within the next week “to get back to the table and discuss where we stand. Hopefully, there will be some movement,” she said.

Superintendent Robert Ervin said he was “optimistic we’ll settle the contract in short order.”

This is the third time during the last 15 years that teachers have started the school year without a contract, Fish said.