Community Corner

Open House is the Site of Troy Teachers Picket

The union and district administrators disagreed on a handout making reference to ongoing contract negotiations.

Teachers at Smith Middle School in Troy greeted parents coming for open house on Thursday evening with a picket against their ongoing contract negotiations with the school district.

Teachers are protesting negotiations between the district and union on a new contract following the expiration of its previous contract in June after months of negotiations. Since the beginning of the school year, a meeting of the board of education was the site of one such picket.

Troy Education Association Crisis Chair Terri McCormick said that the move to picket open houses at four different schools on Thursday came only after a failed attempt to spread the union's message earlier in the week.

She said that at Athens High School on Wednesday, teachers were asked to leave school grounds by building administrators in response to a handout given to parents at that school's open house.

"The reasons that came out afterwards we that we were impeding the flow of traffic into the school, which was not going on. That leads us to tonight. Getting actually thrown off of Athens property riled everyone up. That was very confrontational," McCormick said.

Copies distributed to parents at Smith read, "Troy Teachers are starting school without a contract," under the heading, "Troy Teachers Support the Troy Community!" Several bullet point statements follow, making reference to charitable donations, sponsorships, and scholarships.

According to district spokesperson Kerry Birmingham, the handout makes reference to a political situation, which violates policy previously set forth by the board. 

"It is not appropriate for anyone to be passing out materials discussing labor negotiations," Birmingham said. "(The district) reached out about a week ago, when someone received a flyer which was to be passed out and called us. If (the union) agreed to take out the stuff discussing negotiations, we said, they could distribute them."

Did you attend open house this week? Do you side with the union or the district on this issue?


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