WESTFIELD – Following the retirement of Principal Ray Broderick, Westfield High School formed a summer search committee composed of students, parents, staff members, and a school committee member selected by Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion and the committee, and whittled down a long list of applicants, selecting Jonathan Carter as the latest Westfield High principal.
The technology-minded Carter, who worked for Xerox before serving as principal at two high schools in Springfield, as well as Holyoke’s William J. Dean Technical High School, earned the reputation of a hard-nosed disciplinarian. His first days in Westfield were marked by an incident that took some of the shine off his opening days, namely enforcement of the district’s dress code, which caused a stir days into the fall semester, as over 40 students were brought to the high school’s auditorium and told to call their parents to bring clothes for them to change into on one occasion.
“Based on significant feedback from the faculty and staff, student dress needs to improve to reflect our focus on a positive school climate,” said Carter in a statement in September. “We need to support our students in finding the balance between freedom of expression and a school climate that does not create distraction or disruption.”
“Fashion is changing, kids are pushing the boundaries, and the policy hasn’t been enforced,” said Westfield School Committee member Cindy Sullivan.
Some parents were in an uproar, claiming the district’s policies were both arcane and sexist.
“The (dress code) is ambiguously worded, and needs to be worded in gender neutral language. To use the word ‘distracting’, that’s a real buzzword. It connotes sexism,” said Donna Hoyt-Erickson, a WHS parent who didn’t blame Carter, but rather, the school committee. “(They) deserve the blame for putting forth a policy that wasn’t specifically worded.”
“They (boys) can walk around with their (expletives) hanging out with their underwear showing, or they can wear skinny jeans so we can all see their (expletives),” said another parent. “I feel that herding the girls into the auditorium was rude. To publicly embarrass students, to pick them out and segregate them – it’s bullying.”
Later that month, the dress code’s language reached the School Committee, who voted to send the issue to the Human Resource & Policy Committee for further review.
When asked in September about the hullabaloo, Scallion took the controversy in stride.
“Fashion trends are changing, kids are pushing the limits,” she said. “But we’re looking to raise expectations for our students, and focus on achievement. Change is difficult, but with change comes opportunity.”
While “clothes-gate” caused a minor stir, the district’s teachers taking a work-to-rule action in the fall meant the city and the Westfield Education Association spent much of that time negotiating to resolve a contractual dispute.
Due to formal strikes being illegal in Massachusetts, work-to-rule measures, referred to as “rulebook slowdowns”, serve as a means to force management’s hand, with workers performing only to the strictest adherence to their contract and nothing more.
After seeing school districts around the state undergo similar measures over the past few years, Westfield’s teachers began the action in mid-September hoping to earn better compensation, according to WEA President Lori Hovey.
“We’re one of the lowest paid districts in western Mass.,” said Hovey, adding that teachers in nearby “large-local” districts like Agawam, Chicopee, Holyoke, and West Springfield are paid considerably more. “Depending on what salary schedule a teacher is on (in those districts), they could make $3,000-8,000 more than a teacher in Westfield.”
While Westfield teachers foot a smaller portion of their healthcare bill than in those communities, paying 20 percent of their healthcare benefits under Health Maintenance Organization plans, and 35 percent of all Preferred Provider Organization plans, the WEA remained steadfast in hammering out a new contract for its Unit A members specifically, which was finally agreed upon and ratified by the School Committee in October.
After Westfield Mayor and School Committee Chairman Daniel M. Knapik applied his signature to the new three-year deal, the district’s teachers were set to see wage increases of one, two, and three percent over the next three years, with adjustments made to the contract’s sick-leave language and buyback policy, among a slew of additional agreements, which Committee members believe will save the city considerably.
“We understand what this contract is going to cost for the next couple of years,” said Committee member Ray Diaz. “But it’s the right thing to do for our students, our teachers, and our school district.”
“There were a lot of non-monetary issues that got resolved,” added Committee member Kevin Sullivan. “Dealing with evaluations, dealing with professional development, dealing with a lot of things that aren’t real sexy to talk about, but were very, very important to this group.”
Hovey herself was ecstatic for the district’s teachers.
“This is what we do,” she said. “The teachers of Westfield… We show up, we work as hard as we can, we give 110 percent for the children of Westfield, we achieve the gains we’re supposed to achieve. I think our track record speaks for itself.”
Contracts for the WEA’s other employees have since been ratified, as well.
