An all-day court session is expected next Thursday, February 7, in Lincoln County Superior Court in Wiscasset, to try to resolve an impasse between the Wiscasset Teachers Association and the Wiscasset School Committee.

According to Superintendent of Schools Jay McIntire, each side will have three hours to present their case. Court begins at 8:30 a.m. The teachers have been working without a contract since August of 2006. The two sticking points are salaries and health benefit costs.

Next week's hearing will be a continuance of the hearing held in Superior Court in West Bath on Friday, January 25, with Judge Andrew Horton, at which both sides agreed to take no action for 10 days. The agreement came after the judge met privately with both sides for about 15 minutes.

"The parties have reached a temporary understanding," Judge Horton said. He said the teachers association had "voluntarily decided not to act on a proposal" included in a recent e-mail sent out to teachers by a member of the teachers' association. That e-mail is what prompted the school committee to go to court, asking for a temporary restraining order.

The e-mail called on teachers to make "the community feel a lot of hurt" and "stop all the fun that kids engage in at school" in order that "the public would notice," according to documents filed in the court by the school committee. The e-mail described specific actions teachers could take, which would "result in such things as no concession at basketball games, no pep band, no after-school clubs, no Friday detention, no class senate meetings, no National Honor Society, etc."

One of the documents filed by the school committee says, "Although Maine law requires the parties to maintain the status quo under the former collective bargaining agreement, until a new contract is put in place, members of the Association have refused to perform a number of duties that are mandatory parts of their job."

Referring to last week's agreement, Judge Horton said, "The Association reserves the right to take actions in the future." Those actions, according to court documents which refer to the e-mail, include "arriving for work at 7:30 a.m. and leaving at 3 p.m; refuse to attend meetings during lunch and prep periods; no one works through their lunch; all stipend positions are suspended; and staff who hold coaching positions suspend their activities."

The two sides interpret the significance of the e-mail differently. McInitire said the association has claimed they had no knowledge of it, but, he says, other e-mails sent by teachers tell a different story.

"The union has said it's not a union proposal," McIntire said. "But we have seen e-mails showing the leadership of the association were keeping track of the votes on the proposal."

McIntire is critical of some teachers in the association who have apparently been involving students in the fight between the two sides. Asked how he knows this, McIntire said he has received calls from parents who say their kids come home and tell them what the teachers have said.

"I think the people in Wiscasset want someone to stand up for the kids. Kids are not going to be pawns in the negotiating process," he said.

Teachers association president Brion Controvillas said this week if McIntire had simply called him about the e-mail, the whole court scenario could have been avoided.

"I think they took it out of context," Controvillas said, referring to the school committee's interpretation of the e-mail. He said in the contract negotiations he has been involved in over the years, the superintendent has been the person who has tried to bring the two sides together. While recognizing that McIntire is hired by the school committee, Controvillas said he wishes McIntire could have been more of a facilitator, as past superintendents have been.