Fall River School Committee members Aguiar and Dias talk teacher contract, retention

Fall River Reporter reached out to two sitting school committee members and asked them some questions about the status of the teacher contract negotiations. Below are the responses from Kevin Aguiar and Collin Dias.

1. I feel there are many residents and families in Fall River who have no idea what is going on with the teacher contract. First of all, can you tell us the basics? Are the teachers currently working without a contract? How long have the recent negotiations been going on?

Aguiar: The Teacher contract expired.  The law is that the old contract stays in place until a new contract is agreed to.  This is common practice as negotiations take time.

Dias: That is correct. Employees under the FREA, FRAA, AFSCME and a few others have been working without an updated contract since the summer. Negotiations have been ongoing since last spring. However, I do expect that we will be fully settled by this month.

2. The Fall River Educators Association Facebook page posted on December 20th that a tentative agreement had been made on a portion of the contract. Can you explain what each portion is about?

Aguiar: There was not a tentative agreement in my opinion and Atty Assad confirmed this at our last meeting.   The bargaining team for the School Department does not have authority to agree to a tentative agreement so the FREA was inaccurate in that reporting.

Dias: Without going into details about negotiations, which I am prohibited by law from doing, I do expect there to be a conclusion to the FREA negotiations this month. That is my hope. I believe the post was referring to the fact that major progress was achieved with the largest unit of FREA, Unit A. However, I would recommend reaching out to FREA for an explanation of their Facebook post.

3. What do you think have been the major issues and hurdles with coming to an agreement on a contract for the teachers and the district?

Aguiar: The main issue was financial.  The School Committee can only authorize salary increases that we can sustain as we proceed.  The FREA was looking for over 36 percent raise over the three-year contract and that is not sustainable.  In addition, we have created many support positions over the last few years that are needed to provide appropriate services to our students and these positions needed to be preserved as well.   It is not a matter of what our teachers deserve for a pay but rather how much we can afford while maintaining our fiduciary responsibility to the entire school district.

Dias: In my opinion, as one citizen of Fall River, prior labor contracts have not been favorable to the everyday workers of this city. In sports terminology, I would call them “team-friendly deals.” This has led to Fall River teachers lagging behind the rest of the Commonwealth in competitive pay. Who can blame educators for wanting to be treated fairly like those in other districts?

The issue has been finding the funds to support the contract. I believe there is significant waste and fraud in the district, and I have not received any assurances that our five-year fiscal forecast will not show a deficit. There is potential that we are setting ourselves up for a structural deficit, and I, as one member, will never take a vote that allows that to happen.

For next Monday’s meeting, I have proposed the creation of the Fall River Public Schools Efficiency and Waste Reduction Advisory Committee. This committee would focus on improving operational efficiency and reducing wasteful spending across the district. If approved, it would comprise school committee members, staff, and community representatives. The committee would evaluate practices, explore cost-saving measures, and recommend sustainable solutions. Its work would aim to optimize resource use, enhance fiscal responsibility, and support high-quality education for students.

We have a fiduciary responsibility to the residents of our great city. We must ensure we can fund our contracts while using public dollars responsibly, without unnecessary government bureaucracy in the way.

4. Overall, what are your teacher retention numbers like for the district and how do those compare with other cities like Fall River? Do you think teachers are happy to work for the district?

Aguiar: I am not sure of the exact retention numbers (school administration would have this data) but I believe that we have great teachers in our district and they are looking for increases in salary which they are getting under the current agreement. 

Dias: I do not have the numbers in front of me, but I can request the report and get back to you. However, my understanding is that the retention numbers are not good. A big portion of the issue, as I hear from educators, is that Fall River is not competitive with other districts and many educators do not feel supported.

An updated contract is a good start but there is still much work to do. My goal is to work with educators and FREA, continue visiting schools and address issues on a case-by-case basis.

(Dias did send an email to district staff and cc’d me on the email. The response included a link to DESE date that shows Fall River Public School teacher retention rate is currently 75.8% and the state teacher retention rate is 85.8%.)

5. Do you think Attorney Bruce Assad has helped move this process forward?

Aguiar: Yes, Atty Assad as the School Committee lead negotiator takes the direction from the full committee, and he represented us quite accurately throughout the process.  I, as one member, would have liked to utilize collaborative bargaining throughout these negotiations but the majority chose not to.  We voted at the last meeting on our recommended agreement and Atty Assad played a major role in getting us to that agreement.

Dias: Attorney Assad is a representative of the committee and is supposed to act at the direction of the committee. Not only him, but we are also supposed to set up a whole bargaining committee by vote. I am not going to place the blame on him for the slow progress. However, I will say that if I am on the committee for the next bargaining session, I will support moving to direct bargaining, where school committee members bargain directly with labor unions. I believe this would provide much more clarity.

The next meeting of the Fall River School Committee is Monday, January 13th at 5:30 PM at B.M.C Durfee High School.