Two weeks after students returned to their classrooms due to a teachers’ strike that shuttered schools for 11 days, a Newton teacher and a Newton School Committee chair spoke on the future of schools in the city.
“We just gotta figure out a different way to have a totally different relationship between the administration, the school committee, and the union,” Newton School Committee Chair Chris Brezski said.
The transition back to school after the strike was jarring for teachers, according to Newton South High School teacher Ryan Normandin.
“One day, it felt like we were fighting for our lives, and then the next day we’re just supposed to be teaching the kids again,” Normandin said.
Despite fines against the Newton Teachers Association amounting to $625,000 and being out of class for two full school weeks, Normandin said the strike brought teachers closer together.
“Educators feel more united than they have, at least in the time I’ve been in the public schools,” Normandin said. “I think that the morale in the buildings was a problem for a really long time.”
Normandin emphasized that the school district’s central office, as well as city leadership, did not change after the strike.
“This battle is over, but the same people who were making these decisions are still on the school committee, and we still have the same superintendent, and we still have the same mayor,” Normandin said.
Brezski, whose school committee term began 18 days before the beginning of the strike, called for empathy on both sides of the issue.
“You’re talking about a group of people who have devoted their careers to educating our kids,” Brezski said. “And on the other side, you’re talking about, you know, a group of people who are effectively just volunteers, because they care about public education.”
All sitting school committee members ran unopposed in 2023, but Normandin said Newton citizens are preparing to support new candidates for the next school committee election in 2025.
“There’s a huge amount of energy around doing this, so I don’t think they will be unopposed,” Normandin said. “I think that education and education spending will be at the forefront of the next election.”
Brezski hopes to mend the relationship between teachers, families, and school leadership through community engagement.
“[Superintendendent Anna] Nolin and I are hosting next week and the week after some, like, larger scale, community events, where folks will have the opportunity to, you know, kind of ask us whatever they need to ask, get things off their chests,” Brezski said.
Even though the strike is over, there is still work to be done, Brezski said.
“You know, you have this very acute stress that has now been relieved, but I mean, it’s left a lot of damage in its wake,” Brezski said.
