The Harvard School Committee and Harvard’s teachers have been unable to agree on a new contract, despite more than a year of negotiations. As a result, Harvard’s teachers have instituted a “work-to-rule” action for the current school year and the fallout from the impasse has begun to affect the atmosphere in the schools, particularly at Bromfield. The Harvard Teachers Association, or HTA, has told its members to meet just the basic job requirements spelled out in the teacher contract; but to stop putting in the extra time and effort that students and parents have been accustomed to seeing in the past, until a settlement is reached. As further proof of their unhappiness with the negotiations, some teachers have started picketing in front of the schools in the early mornings.
The atmosphere at school is less personal. Teachers are treating it more like work.
— Kayti Bigelow, student
“We’re trying to bring attention to the fact that we don’t have a contract,” HTA President and second grade teacher Diane Temple said in a recent interview. This is by far the longest that contract talks have dragged on, in her experience, she said. Since negotiations began in October last year, the two sides have used a facilitator, and now are working with a paid mediator, but to no avail so far. The previous three-year teacher contract expired Aug. 31, and without a new contract settled, the provisions of the old one are still in force.
Under the work-to-rule action, few teachers have signed up to run extracurricular programs for students, or to help plan and chaperone school dances and trips as before. Parents have filled in for the teachers, managing a number of Bromfield’s clubs and activities this year. In addition, many teachers who had previously spent long hours in the school buildings, now leave about one-half hour after the end of school, cutting back on the time students can receive extra help or make up missed tests and quizzes. However, the staff is still doing an excellent job of teaching students during school hours, Temple stressed, as well as attending required meetings and writing letters of recommendation for college-bound seniors. “We are working our contractual hours, the seven hours in the building that the contract stipulates,” she explained, as well as doing the usual teaching preparation at home.
While students, teachers and administrators all say that classroom instruction does not seem to be suffering, students, particularly at Bromfield, said that they do see the effects of the work-to-rule action and the toll the stalled negotiations is taking on teacher morale.
A troop of seventh-grade Girl Scouts recently took time out from embellishing blue jeans at their meeting in the Congregational Church to talk about how the teachers’ work -to-rule action has affected them. These Bromfield students said that they have clearly noticed teachers’ reduced availability to provide extra help before and after school, and to help run student activities.
“If you have to finish a quiz after school, the teachers are rushing you out,” Karen Shaw complained. Also, many of these Scouts had looked forward to participating in Bromfield’s dances and extracurricular activities for the first time, and were frustrated at cutbacks in these activities. While the Scouts appreciated a recent Halloween dance, they had expected to have more dances to be scheduled this year, they said.
Some of these girls have younger siblings, and were also concerned that certain activities for elementary students would not be offered. They focused special attention on Nature’s Classroom, a weeklong outdoor educational trip to a lake in New Hampshire, which all fifth graders usually take in the spring. The girls all agreed that this program, which administrators have now put on hold, is “very important.” Brooke Deflorio said, “I think it’s so mean. If I missed Nature’s Classroom, …I would cry.”
A troop of Senior Girl Scouts, who met that same evening in the Congregational Church basement, also expressed strong opinions about how the teachers’ work to rule action has affected their 11th-grade school experience. There was unanimous agreement among these Scouts that the work-to-rule action has hurt the school’s morale.
“The atmosphere at school is less personal. Teachers are treating it more like work,” Kayti Bigelow explained. Katherine Kennedy agreed, “It’s detrimental to the whole atmosphere.” Kristen vonLoesecke added. “Our teachers don’t seem to have that passion this year.”
A number of Scouts complained that they aren’t getting as much academic support from teachers as in the past. Kennedy pointed out that “teachers are not available for extra help, like they used to be.” Also, while some teachers have historically allowed students more time to complete tests after school, “there’s no extra time for that this year,” according to vonLoesecke.
The Scouts clearly regretted their curtailed opportunities for extracurricular activities as well. These college-bound students were concerned that a gap in extracurricular activities could affect their competitive standing with applicants from other schools.
“This is an important year for us. We have a lot to learn to prepare for college. A lot of our options are cut off,” Bigelow said.
The Scouts said they appreciate fully the extra effort that many teachers have made in the past. They especially noted the dedication of teachers who have been part of the Bromfield community for years. These students also realized that teachers are not unanimous in their enthusiasm for working to rule. As Naomi Malam noted, “It’s pretty clear to us that most teachers don’t really want to be doing this.”
In a recent interview, Bryan Molinaro, Bromfield senior class president, said that students could view teachers’ work-to-rule position as a problem, or instead to “take it as a challenge.”
Molinaro lauded the extra efforts of the Bromfield administrators to see that essential elements of the senior class experience were not lost. Principal Jim O’Shea and Vice Principal Scott Hoffman have taken on a lot of the burden, including chaperoning dances and planning for graduation, he said. As far as extracurricular activities go, Molinaro said that the yearbook staff misses English teacher Peter Murphy’s involvement, but was grateful that parent volunteers Abby Hutchinson and Ellen Harasimowicz have stepped forward to do the “busy work.” Even with the problems associated with work-to-rule, “teachers’ first job is teaching us, and that hasn’t been affected,” Molinaro said.
Another area of student life that has been affected to some extent is athletics. Athletic Director Pam Alexander said she was successful in filling all coaching positions for the fall and winter seasons, and is currently searching for good candidates for paid positions coaching boys’ and girls’ Junior Varsity lacrosse in the spring season. Alexander noted that some of these coaching vacancies were due to teachers working to rule, but others were due to teachers’ unavailability for other reasons. “Everyone’s managing, but it’s a different atmosphere this year. I see it in the kids’ nonverbal communication,” she said.
For their part, many teachers are reluctant to talk for the record about how they’re reconciling work-to-rule with their professional goals. One teacher, who wished not to be identified by name, expressed a feeling of guilt at holding an after-school review session, even when assured by parents that their children found it very useful in grasping challenging material.
In addition, a few teachers have continued managing their favorite extra-curricular activities, despite the HTA’s call to stop doing such work. As one teacher said, while all teachers understand what work to rule means: “do only what is indicated as required in the contract, …not all teachers have been able or willing to follow that strictly.”
The effects of the work-to-rule action are less visible at the elementary school, where there are fewer extracurricular activities, and less student-teacher interaction outside school hours. However, many fifth-grade parents are quite concerned that Nature’s Classroom may be cancelled if the teacher contract is not settled soon, although the schools have reserved a spot at the camp, in the hopes that the program will be able to go forward as usual.
“This is a huge part of fifth grade, and normally, the kids and teachers are working the whole year to get ready,” one parent noted. “This has been a Harvard tradition for at least eight years that I know of. My son still says that Nature’s Classroom was one of the best weeks of his life. I hope that my daughter can have this experience also,” she added.
That program, along with the traditional ninth-grade visit to Washington and tenth- grade outing to New York City, are all currently on hold, because teachers usually help plan and chaperone the trips.
“There’s a great deal of support for the trips,” O’Shea said recently. “We’re in discussions, and looking at what the possibilities are,” to hold the trips if the teacher contract is not settled soon.
O’Shea clearly felt caught in the middle in the conflict between the teachers and the school board over the contract. “I am a neutral party; I work for the school board, but I work with the teachers,” he said. “It’s not an easy time for people. It wears on you, on everyone. But mostly on the teachers and kids.”
As Bromfield junior Liz Lee put it, “We can’t ask questions [about the contract dispute], but we want to know what’s going on. Most of us don’t blame the teachers. We just want them to come to an agreement. We just want this to end.”
The School Committee and the teachers have scheduled another two contract negotiating sessions this month. In an interview earlier this month, school board Vice-Chairman Will Verbits said, “I’m very hopeful about these meetings. Some movement is possible…I try to stay positive.”
Note: Cyndy Karon contributed to this article.