Teachers in Newton, Massachusetts, have voted to go on strike.
The Newton Teachers Association has been locked in a contract battle with the school committee that's been dragged out since October 2022. The district says it's offering competitive compensation for teachers while the union argues the proposed pay raises aren't even keeping up with inflation.
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Thursday afternoon, the union's president, Mike Zilles, announced that educators had voted overwhelmingly to strike Friday.
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"What I want to announce right now is that 98% of our membership tonight voted yes to begin a strike tomorrow morning," Zilles said.
In total, 1,641 teachers voted for the strike.
Schools will be closed Friday, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller announced.
"The underfunding of schools has created conditions that make it impossible for our teachers to do their jobs," Parents Educator Collaborative founder Alison Lobron said earlier.
"It breaks my heart for our teachers and our families that a strike is being contemplated. The adults belong at the negotiating table, children belong in our classrooms," Fuller said earlier.
An update from the teachers' union was expected at a news conference and rally scheduled for 5 p.m. at Newton City Hall. In the meantime, the district went to court Thursday morning to try to stop the strike.
Fuller said that if the district needs more funding, Newton will have to pass a Proposition 2½ override, a kind of tax increase.
"If we want to increase the funding for the Newton Public Schools, we'll have to convince our voters to do so," she said.
But the union and a member of the City Council's finance committee, Bill Humphrey, allege Fuller is choosing to withhold existing taxpayer money from the schools.
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"For a wealthy community like Newton, it is not the responsibility of the educators to take an effective pay cut against inflation in order to subsidize the level of services that this community wants to provide," Humphrey said.
If the teachers vote to go on strike Thursday afternoon, as expected, Fuller has said there will be no school in Newton Friday.
Parents have been among the people rallying in support of teachers this week.
