"At the end of the meeting, the mediator said that there needed to be a cooling off period, they should all go think about the issues, and he did not want any further meetings before Friday, September 14."

Did he actually say that? And there's no guarantee they'll reach an agreement on Sept 14.

At what point are high school seniors affected by a prolonged delay? Or is the mediator that confident that a judge will promptly order teachers back to the classroom?

SusanD:

Yes, I was personally told that the mediator said those words.

It is already documented this year and back in 2004-2005 that the NEA will tell lies to parents and other interested parties as part of its disinformation campaign.

The School Committee wants people to know about the mediator's statement so no disinformation campaign story goes out which promotes the idea that a lack of meetings in the next week is due to the School Committee being unwilling to meet.

It is possible for the Judge to order teachers back to work when they meet today.

Don,

the people of EG, and RI for that matter, are lucky to have someone like you on the case.

I hope the EG SC doesn't cave!

As a resident of Coventry, which has teachers making and average of 75K, with some as high as $90K, and a median houshold income in the low 40's, I wish we had a SC that had a clue.

Don,

A question: why doesn't the EG SC just fire the teachers, and hire new ones? Seems like going to court, having a judge order them back to work, and then watching them work to rule all year until their demands are met is a movie we've all seen before.

Is it because, like every other SC in RI, the EG SC is filled with people who are married to teachers, related to teachers, have or are public sector union employees, own companies with state contracts, and the rest of the usual excuses for not rocking the boat (even as it sinks) in RI?

I hope the people of East Greenwich realize how fortunate they are, they have a school committee that understands their role. Their school committee is standing firm in trying to represent the needs of the town, the citizens, and the schoolchildren against the interests of the teacher’s union. The people of E.G. need to see through the NEA spin and appreciate what their school committee is trying to accomplish. They are taking on the extremely difficult task of standing up to this goliath of a union that cares nothing about their children or their taxpayers.

>> As a resident of Coventry, which has teachers making and average of 75K, with some as high as $90K, and a median houshold income in the low 40's, I wish we had a SC that had a clue.

Coventry is a joke. They have school committees that continue to think that it is their job to represent the teachers! It’s no wonder that there are never any contract disputes in that town, they give the teacher unions everything they want. And when Coventry, despite having the highest property taxes in the state (along with the highest paid teachers) goes bankrupt in 2 or 3 years the teachers should be first in line to thank.

It's usually advisable to look for the hidden agenda of anything done by the powers that be in this state, particularly when, on the surface, it goes against character. In this case, the Paiva-Weed property tax increase caps (note that this year property taxes are still allowed to increase above the rate of inflation - 5.25% this year, if memory serves - which gives an indicator of how much the teachers unions are really demanding if there "isn't enough money" this year).

Anyway, we have a Democrat General Assembly standing at the precipice of the fiscal abyss of flat-lining tax revenues; tobacco money all p***ed away; casino shot down (at least for a while) and thousands of baby boomer state retirees / teachers on the cusp of drawing upon the pension plan that is almost $5 BILLION short ... and this doesn't include the unfunded liability for the retiree healthcare benefits that have been promised, which is probably an even bigger number.

Nickel and dime things, such as taxes on cable bills, won't do it. In their eyes, they need a large and broad-based tax to keep the Democrat machine fueled. So it wouldn't be surprising if the Democrat leadership has been having conversations along the following lines:

"Income tax? Done that."

"Sales tax? Done that."

"Lottery / gambling? Done that."

"Statewide property tax? Hmmmm, now you're talking. But how do we get the public to accept it? Especially the seniors?"

"Let's make things so bad with teacher strikes and Caruolo suits that the public will acquiesce along the lines of 'something must be done, we can't keep going this way' ... and then dangle the prospect of our 'solution' being more 'state aid to education,' which we 'sell' as 'lowering property taxes' thanks to the 'savings' from consolidation coupled with the 'savings' of a 'fairer' state formula for assessing property taxes - such as a 'progressive' rate like we have for the income tax ... so the 'rich will pay their fair share'?"

"Brilliant! Basically a variation on 'the Lottery will fund education and lower your property taxes' scam that we pulled on the rubes back in the 1970's. And once we get that statewide property tax in, the sky's the limit for tax revenue. The urban mayors will be on board, for we can then suck even more money out of the suburban communities and redistribute it the city political machines. And it'll sure keep the unions happy. Let's roll!"

Tom W, paints an interesting scenario. Now let’s remember that there are 16 more contracts coming due next year – just before the election. That looks to me like a power-move situation, exactly what Tom W described.

All of this attention to teacher contracts is well earned, but let's not forget the support personnel. There are a few districts with overdue contracts for them too.

I'm currently involved in one of those negotiations at Chariho, so I can't divulge too much information due to the cloak of silence draped over these discussions (closed meetings are something I do not support, but since I can’t yet divulge what happened during the vote, all I can say is the meetings are closed).

But I can divulge what happens before and after the closed meetings. One second before the meeting and one second afterwards, the NEA rep had on a button that said, "I don't want to strike, but I will if I have to."

Notice to NEA - I don't take kindly to threats. If you want to be treated like professionals, act like professionals. Accept performance evaluations as a means to determine compensation (just like real professionals) and accept the fact that you are no different than the people who are paying for your generous salaries - your health care (and co-pays) and pensions should be no different either.