Peaceful protest organizer Brandon Haseltine (THE WESTFIELD NEWS PHOTO SUBMITTED)
SOUTHWICK – A dozen Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School students, parents and alumni gathered Feb. 4 outside Powder Mill School just before the start of the School Committee meeting to protest in support of teachers.
Organizer Brandon Haseltine, a Regional School junior, said teachers across the district are in contract negotiations and he believes they deserve more.
“I downloaded the contract from the STGRSD website and read all 55 pages of it. I knew that there was something suspicious and offsetting of Superintendent Jennifer Willard’s current contract proposals, and I was not going to be a bystander throughout this process,” Haseltine said of what sparked him to organize what he called a “peaceful protest.”
Haseltine said he wanted his peers to be more involved and show they support their teachers.
“My goal is to get students more involved with decisions about their education and to hold the people accountable who are trying to make apathetic decisions about educators who have significantly impacted our lives,” he said. “I hope to continue my work at the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education next month and voice our concerns on a state level. I want to ensure teachers who deserve raises are being raised, and to highlight modern injustices in education.”
Haseltine said, specifically, he was concerned that teachers could lose some of their sick time and with increases in health costs.
Sisters Evelyn and Abigail Schoenthal hold signs during a protest Feb. 4, 2020. (BRANDON HASELTINE PHOTO)
“In the STGRSD contract, Title VIII & Title XI discuss things such as family sick days and 50:50 Health Care. The fact that teachers with children, close family members, etc. might have to give up five family sick days for a 1.75-3% raise over three years is unacceptable,” Haseltine said. “And, with 50:50 healthcare, some teachers statistically take less money home than last year, compared to other districts who do 30:70 or 40:60 healthcare whereas you only pay 30% or 40% of the healthcare costs and the other percentage is covered.”
Haseltine said there are some educators who are in favor of the new contract negotiations, however, these educators have been able to conserve personal sick days over years of being in the District, and losing family sick days would not be a devastating as they can utilize their personal sick days for family sick days. Haseltine said he wished students and the public were allowed to discuss these issues with the School Committee.
“The protesters attended the School Committee meeting and voiced public comments about the contracts. However, the School Committee meetings are specifically designed to stop open discussions through their rules, such as the ‘Public comment will exclude personnel issues,’ and that they are unable to directly reply,” said Haseltine.
In response to a request for comments on the matter, Superintendent Willard’s assistant responded that the district had no comment at this time.
