KENNEBUNK, Maine — The union representing teachers in RSU 21, the Kennebunk, Arundel, Kennebunkport Education Association (KAKEA), recently filed two prohibited labor practices claims against RSU 21's school board and asked the Maine Education Association to investigate.
KAKEA and the district's school board have been negotiating teacher contracts for the last 10 months, but the two groups have yet to come to an agreement. Teachers are working based on the terms outlined in their current contracts, which expired in September.
According to KAKEA president and chief negotiator Jen Swan and members of the union, the school board has not made any proposals, counterproposals, or offered to compromise during mediations.
"The KAKEA negotiating team has tried time after time to compromise and find common ground with the School Board on multiple issues important to educators," Swan wrote in a press release. "Our attempts to find compromise have been met with stonewalling by the School Board, and a lack of any meaningful movement since May."
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Swan and teachers sat down with NEWS CENTER Maine to share their concerns for the first time.
"I'm showing up and doing my job every single day the best that I can do." Kennebunk High School social studies teacher Linsay Venezio said. "So, when the school board and district seems unwilling to compromise on very basic working conditions that are available to other nearby districts and around the state of Maine, it's demoralizing."
Teachers like Eric Helpin-Desmarais said teachers lack a sense of security without contracts.
"I have a thousand other things to worry about, and the legalities and the micro details of my job shouldn't be one of them," Helpin-Desmarais said. "I feel limited and borderline handcuffed with it. Some of my options are taken away that others have."
Unlike teachers in neighboring districts, RSU 21 teachers have undefined work hours, no planning time outlined in their contracts, and 20 minutes for lunch that they may not get to take since the district has lost nearly 40 staff members in the last year.
"Most of them left to go to other districts. Most of them are making between $15,000 and $20,000 more a year," Kennebunk High School special education teacher Paula Reetz said.
Venezio added that ongoing issues within the district, and the drawn-out negotiations process, has made herself and other teachers feel disrespected. She also said some teachers are forced to make decisions that will benefit their families and also that will provide them with a more emotionally stable work environment.
"We're here for the kids, but if teachers don't feel respected professionally, who will teach the kids?" Venezio questioned.
In KAKEA's complaint, they claimed that the school board has not bargained in good faith; sometimes not showing up for meetings or mediations on time, and also coming to meetings unprepared.
The union claimed that the school board failed to meet a proposal submission deadline on Sept. 23. According to the union, the school board submitted a delayed proposal on Oct. 2, one that was regressive.
"If they told me why they can't guarantee planning time and a legitimate reason, I could get on board," Swan said.
Swan explained that chaos has impacted the negotiations process since the school board's former chief negotiator Kirstin Shapiro had an outburst at a school board meeting.
Shapiro claimed that teachers were threatening and harassing her family.
MEA completed an internal investigation of those claims and did not find any proof that any teachers or staff had threatened Shapiro or her family, MEA UniServ district 1 director Rob Olson shared.
Thursday, RSU 21's communications director Matt Shinberg announced that school board member Matt Stratford replaced Shapiro as chief negotiator.
As Shinberg and school board chair Leslie Stoeffler explained, five of the 12 members from the school board make up the HR committee. New HR committee members are selected every year, and at their first meeting each September, the group votes for a new board chair, who doubles as chief negotiator.
Stoeffler said Shapiro's replacement had nothing to do with her outburst or with MEA's findings from their internal investigation, but she shared that she does not support Shapiro's behavior.
"I don't want that to happen," Stoeffler said. "It was a very disappointing event to have happen."
Stoeffler said the union's claims against the school board are untrue.
"I would say absolutely they have not happened," Stoeffler said, referencing the claims that board members have come to meetings late or unprepared. "We are the ones that have created the proposals that have gone forth to the union. We have agreed with them and shown up at all of the designated times for meetings as well as for when we started the mediation process."
She also claimed that teachers have planning time built in their schedule. When asked why teachers are asking for planning time if it's already allocated for, Stoeffler said the allocated time is not detailed in their contracts.
Once challenged, Stoeffler did not dispute the acknowledgment that it is common for a teacher's schedule to change to meet immediate staffing and student needs. Due to that acknowledgment, she agreed that allocated time for planning is subject to change due to the fact that planning time is not outlined in the current contracts teachers have.
Despite the unions claims, Stoeffler said board members are committed to bargaining in good faith, prioritizing teachers directly after students.
"Teachers are the reason we are all here," Stoeffler said. "We don't have schools without teachers."
Olson said there are currently no negotiation meetings scheduled.