Teachers in Andover, Massachusetts, were back at school Monday morning — but walking the picket line instead of teaching inside the classroom.
Despite a weekend full of negotiation sessions through a mediator, and some back and forth — late Sunday night the district announced there would be no school Monday and no deal with the teachers' union.
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A third day of classes will be canceled Tuesday, Andover Public Schools announced Monday night.
Massachusetts law prohibits public employees from going on strike, and the district has pursued legal action, asking the court to impose fines on the union. At a hearing Monday afternoon, a judge ruled that the union would have to pay $50,000 if the employees didn't comply by 6 p.m. that day.
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Each day that the strike continues, the fine will repeat at an increase of $10,000, meaning the union would be charged another $60,000 at 3 p.m. Tuesday and another $70,000 on Wednesday, according to the ruling.
Late Monday night, the union accused the school committee of stalling "for hours before presenting a substandard contract offer to the striking Andover Education Association, forcing Andover Public Schools to remain closed."
"The AEA has greatly modified its wage proposals to reach a contract agreement, and the School Committee is simply reiterating threats about job cuts and program cuts," the union said in a statement. "The AEA is appalled by the School Committee’s tactics to threaten the community rather than settle a fair contract."
The school committee said the district can't afford to give teachers an 18% raise over the next four years without having to lay teachers off.
"This is not a scare tactic. I know the union believes it is. I wish it were," said Terry Spruce, chair of the Andover School Committee.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association said Monday evening that its president, Max Page, and its vice president, Deb McCarthy, would speak alongside members of the Andover Education Association outside the Massachusetts State House Tuesday.
"The members of the Andover Education Association are sticking together to get a fair contract that, among other things, ends the exploitation of instructional assistants," Page and McCarthy said in a statement. "We have been appalled by the School Committee's position that Andover cannot fund fair wages for all educators. The AEA has put forward proposals that are responsible and creative. This contract should have been settled months ago. We stand with the AEA in asking all elected officials in the state to urge Andover officials to prioritize the funding of schools that have for too long relied on paying poverty wages to the educators working with the most vulnerable students and denying such basic benefits as paid parental leave to school employees."
Earlier Monday, Andover Education Association President Matt Bach said, "I thought we were very close yesterday. We got to a point where really in the first year of both contracts for assistants and teachers, we were only $260,000 apart, which we thought could be solved, but the school committee said take it or leave it and we’re closing the schools at 8 o'clock."
The school committee said giving the union what it's asking for would cost the district an additional $5.5 million.
The district said that would mean going to voters for a prop 2 1/2 — or layoffs, increasing class sizes, reinstating bus fees, and cuts to athletics, fine arts, music and other extra curriculars.
"Typical scare tactics," said Bach. "These threats always come from a district that doesn’t want to negotiate a fair contract. That's not something I see happening in an affluent space like Andover."
