Sheffield — During the Southern Berkshire Regional School District’s School Committee meeting on Thursday, June 26, member Bonnie Silvers announced that the district and the Southern Berkshire Regional Education Association (SBREA) would be going back to contract negotiations on Tuesday, July 22.
The SBREA represents school district employees and previously could not come to an agreement with the school district over contract negotiations.
Employees in the district are grouped into two units: Unit A is the contract that all teachers are grouped into, and Unit D is the contract that all paraprofessionals, administrative assistants, secretaries, and food service personnel are grouped into.
The contracts are negotiated every three years, and the current contracts expire by the end of the school year on Monday, June 30.
The contract negotiations have been fraught with controversy.
On June 9, members of SBREA held a rally outside the school district offices, immediately preceding their meeting with members of the school committee.
At the meeting, the SBREA reached a tentative settlement agreement with the school committee over Unit D contracts.
However, the committee rejected the association’s proposal for Unit A contracts.
On June 16, Cas Londergan from The Management Solution (TMS) of Auburn, Mass., sent a press release to The Berkshire Edge about the contract negotiations to The Berkshire Edge on behalf of Superintendent Beth Regulbuto.
In an email to The Berkshire Edge, SBREA President Andrew Rapport criticized many of the details in Regulbuto’s press release.
Meanwhile, Regulbuto submitted her resignation to the school district on June 12, effective on August 15.
At the June 26 school committee meeting, Silvers, who is the chair of the Personnel and Negotiations Subcommittee, said that she is hopeful that the July 22 negotiation session will lead to a final contract agreement.
“It is clear that both sides want to do what can be done to reach a negotiated settlement,” Silvers said. “Should [the July 22 meeting] not lead to a final agreement, we will instruct our attorney to file on July 23 for mediation. That does not mean that we would not continue to negotiate.”
Silvers said that mediation can be withdrawn at any point if a final agreement is reached.
“It’s just that it takes so long [to get an agreement] in mediation,” Silvers said. “At this point, we’re hoping we do not have to file for mediation and that we will have a final agreement on July 22. In light of that, we’re asking [SBREA] as the subcommittee for a statement with everything that has been resolved with tentative agreements. That should facilitate us moving ahead on what are still open issues. We are asking for the open issues to be stated, along with the perspective of both sides so we will know what is left open to negotiations.”
Silvers went on to criticize The Berkshire Edge for its reporting on contract negotiations.
“We didn’t feel that the reporter was misreporting, but was only reporting what was coming from the SBREA, where we had and had published and put on our white website definitive information that refuted what was made as a statement,” Silvers said.
In both previous articles about contract negotiations, published on June 9, and June 16, Superintendent of Schools Regulbuto was quoted extensively through emails she sent to The Berkshire Edge.
Later on during the meeting, the school committee formed an ad hoc committee to search for an interim superintendent and a permanent superintendent for the school district.
The ad hoc committee, which is made up of school committee members, is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, July 2 at 5 p.m.
In a letter to the editor after the June 26 meeting, parent Kevin Fish wrote that he is disappointed that the school committee did not include community members, including parents and educators, in the ad hoc committee.
