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August 31, 2007

Tiverton teachers meeting to debate work return

TIVERTON -- In another closely watched contract matter, the teachers union here will begin debating at 4:30 p.m. whether "to report to work" on Tuesday, according to a union spokesman.

The union membership is slated to meet at Green Valley Country Club in Portsmouth, spokeman Patrick Crowley, deputy executive director of National Education Assocation-Rhode Island, said in a statement.

Teachers did report to school this week as scheduled. Their contract is due to expire at midnight tonight. An earlier item reported incorrectly that it had expired yesterday.

Yesterday, the teachers’ union -- NEA-Tiverton -- filed an unfair labor practice charge against the School Committee, asserting the committee has bargained in bad faith by failing to appoint a negotiator authorized to reach a tentative agreement.

And tensions have flared this week. Crowley last night released a copy of a memo Schools Supt. William J. Rearick sent to teachers Tuesday apologizing for tellimg them to "sit down and shut up" at a district orientation meeting in the high school auditorium earlier that day.

“My intention was to get the meeting started in a timely manner, in retrospect I should have chosen my words more carefully,” Rearick wrote.

“I want to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone I may have offended,” the superintendent added.

Rearick last night said it happened after he'd tried to call the orientation meeting to order without success.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer Gina Macris and Journal archival reports

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 4:55 PM | Permalink

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Greg Parisi | August 31, 2007 6:42 PM link

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