Dear Editor:

The Wiscasset School Committee is pleased to report that it has reached an agreement with the Wiscasset Teachers Association that will avert the need for further litigation between the parties at this point.

In short, the association has agreed to perform all duties that are required under the terms of the expired collective bargaining agreement, duties which teachers have traditionally performed over the course of many years, and duties which directly impact the delivery of educational services to our students.

This agreement, together with representations made by the association to the Superior Court on January 25, 2008 at a hearing held in connection with the lawsuit brought against it by the school committee, ensures that students in Wiscasset will get the services and support from their teachers that they are entitled to. As a result, the school committee intends to dismiss its lawsuit and labor board action because further action against the association is unnecessary.

Under Maine's bargaining laws, public employees cannot engage in illegal job actions to coerce a school district to concede to their contractual demands. The law provides a dispute resolution procedure where the parties must participate in mediation, fact finding and interest arbitration. Self help is simply illegal. Over the past year, the Wiscasset Teachers Association has engaged in many actions to protest the lack of a labor contract.

Some such actions are permitted by law. However, any actions which touch upon the delivery of educational services to students are clearly prohibited. While the school committee respects the association's right to communicate its displeasure with the progress of negotiations, the School Committee cannot allow students to be adversely impacted by an illegal job action. When such an action was threatened, it felt obligated to go to court.

The association has attempted to divert attention from its proposed illegal job actions by claiming that it was never going to engage in such illegal job actions and that it was proposed by a teacher acting on her own. We hope this is true, although the facts suggest otherwise.

The so-called "union action" was disseminated by association bargaining team members to members of the Wiscasset Teachers Association and other teachers, and votes were tallied by a member of its bargaining team. It sought to encourage teachers to stop performing duties from January 28 to February 8.

Never did the association or anyone acting on its behalf disavow the pending illegal action. It was not until after the school committee filed its lawsuit that the association represented to the court that it would not engage in such action. Moreover, the association agreed that if it planned such actions in the future, it would give the school committee 10 days advance notice prior to such action. This would give the school committee enough time to evaluate the legality of the action and seek judicial intervention, if necessary.

It is important to note that not all teachers voted in favor of the illegal job actions and these unfortunate recent events should not disgrace the school department as a whole.

Indeed, there are a number of highly dedicated professionals in our schools who go above and beyond because they are dedicated to their craft, to their students, and ultimately to your

students. If you have an opportunity, please thank those teachers who chaperone dances or lengthy out-of-state field trips. Please recognize those teachers that show up for awards ceremonies for their students. Appreciate those who receive modest stipends to take on extra duties such as leading marching bands in parades, coaching academic or athletic teams, directing productions, or serving as team leaders. These teachers rejected a strategy of doing less for the community in hopes of the community giving more to them.

It was unfortunate that the school committee was forced to go to court against the association. However, we are thankful that these efforts have produced an agreement that the school committee is convinced will protect its student body from any illegal work stoppage and will give guidance to teachers and administrators alike as to what conduct is, and is not, appropriate.

Sincerely,

Wiscasset School Committee

Gene Stover, Chairman

Doug Smith, Vice Chairman

Lori Hanley

Sarah Whitfield

Dear Editor:

This last week I had an epiphany; it was a moment of revelation, moreover a reminder. It was a confirmation that what I had been doing for the last 34 years was indeed important.

I was monitoring a sculpture class that was engaged in creating assemblage sculptures from odds and ends that I had scrounged from the tech department and other sources. My students were deeply engaged in their work. They were asking each other questions, advice and opinions.

My principal walked into the room, unannounced to ask me a question concerning an item I had requested (but not requested in the budget). While I was explaining the questioned item her attention was totally focused on the students. She engaged herself with them asking, "What are you trying to do here? What does that piece have to do with that one? What are you trying to say with that? Oh my, that is awesome!"

Watching all this happen, I became suddenly aware of how important what I did each day was. How fortunate I was to work alongside a person (and others) of such total commitment to young adults. Her priority became not the mundane application of budget issues, but the learning experience of students.

I had become so caught up in teacher contract issues, personal achievement, and just trying to hang on that I had lost sight of why I got up each morning and why I was getting so upset and frustrated each day with the foolishness of local and state politics.

I began my teaching career in 1974 with the idealism of trying to foster the importance of the arts in young adults, to help others realize how much the arts can enrich ones life and become a source of vast personal satisfaction. To that end I believe I have been successful, many times over. Recently, however I have lost sight of that. Forces that I have no control over have distracted me.

Fortunately, last week, I was reminded why I became a teacher. Not for the money (ha), not for personal acclaim, and not because it was a job.

The reason was that each moment of each day was a challenge. Each moment was an opportunity to change a life forever. Each moment could become an epiphany for each child, whether I was aware of it or not.

As parents and grandparents you entrust your children, and indeed your future to us for six or more hours each day. We in turn, honor that by doing more than what some "normal" humans could or should. All that is required in return from you is the respect and the ability to be allowed to improve the human condition through knowledge, curiosity and creative thinking.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Each person should try to leave this world a little better than how they found it." I have tried to live my own life by that philosophy.

Thank goodness there are great people loose in it that remind me of that.

Thomas Block

HAT (humble art teacher)

Wiscasset High School

Dear Editor

I've seen a suggestion in the paper encouraging the Westport Island Selectmen to appoint a single selectperson to meet privately to discuss an important town issue.

I'm a strong believer in public involvement in local government, and like all town residents, expect the Selectmen to abide by state and local rules in taking care of public affairs. (Admittedly, we're a lively town, and we all don't agree on every single town action or discussion, but that's not my point.)

Whether the issue is the Ferry Landing, roads, schools, assessments, etc., there's two reasons why I think discussions and decisions need to be public and need to comply with the right-to-know law:

1. Selectmen's actions need to be public to be legal, there are limited situations for executive session, and a majority of the Board must be present at a meeting for it to be legal. (That's my understanding, anyway.)

2. Just as importantly, the public deserves to be notified of meetings about town business and have a right to be present. 

If we consider the ferry landing issue alone and the number of public meetings and hearings, and public meetings of the Selectmen, Conservation Commission, Planning Board, Zoning  Board of Appeals, and Wright Property Committee that have discussed this project, it doesn't quite seem right that a private and possibly improper meeting is now being suggested to discuss it.

I don't want to get into the Ferry Landing project through letters to the editors, and there's a chance I misunderstood the proposal. My point is to strongly encourage the Selectmen and all public groups in town to respect the right-to-know law and commitment to public access. 

Sincerely,

Mary Ellen Barnes

Westport Island

Editor's note: a copy of this letter sent to Westport Island selectmen was sent to the newspaper.

Gentlemen:

It appears we are in for the long haul, waiting for the courts to take up our topics. In the meantime opportunities come and go.

I will refrain from recounting my fierce objections to how this whole purchase came to be, and how it has morphed into a symbol of the larger metaphysical differences on Westport Island. I wish to move forward, now accepting the launch ramp concept as reality.

That said, we still  have the chance for more citizens of Westport to provide input; many folks know that selling the house can reduce our overall tax burden, and eliminate a burdensome asset requiring ongoing maintenance. Scale down the rest of the project. Rethink the docks out into the rushing tides. Make it more than a wormer haven.

So what do you say? You can stop spending taxpayers money in legal fees, we can invest our resources elsewhere, and the citizens of Westport get a reasonable, viable, sensible boat ramp and recreation area.

Seems like a no-brainer to me. Dialogue instead of debate. Consensus instead of consternation.

 I await your invitation to generate an overdue positive dialogue on this matter. 

E. Davies Allan

Westport Island

Dear Editor:

I have worked in the Wiscasset school system for 20 years. It is a school system that is now, slowly and painfully, unraveling before my very eyes. There is no question that these are difficult times in which we live. We are a nation and a state that is struggling with a broken health care system, soaring oil prices, a flat housing market, a state budget that is in the red, a state school consolidation plan that has not been thoroughly planned and is being poorly implemented, and a long, cold winter. These are all issues that are strapping our public education system.

In addition, the Wiscasset community has its own set of issues. It has lost the Maine Yankee tax base and failed to fully plan for this inevitable "rainy day." It has a school age population that is shrinking. It has "consolidated" with small, inland communities with which it has very little in common.

But what, in the face of these challenging issues, is actually happening in Wiscasset schools? What is happening is an unraveling which I am beginning to see on a daily basis. I see talented, professional, and extremely dedicated teachers who are demoralized and undervalued and consequently unable to give their inner strength and resources to their students.

I see an extremely capable and caring principal at the high school, where I teach, who is desperately trying to boost up and maintain what has been a small and vibrant school community. I see a school board and superintendent who seem to have "lost their way," to put it kindly. And finally, I see students with needs that are not subsiding but increasing on many, many fronts.

Now is the time for leadership. Leadership which understands the dynamics of teaching and learning, which understands the power of collaborative problem solving, and which truly understands the long-term value of a quality education. It is time that Wiscasset citizens pay attention. It is time that the school board be called to task. It is time that Wiscasset teachers have a fair contract.

I urge the citizens of Wiscasset (which I am not) to attend their school board meetings and to stand up and speak out before one of Wiscasset's greatest assets, its schools, are recklessly squandered.

Mary Ellen Bell

Bath

Social Studies Teacher

Wiscasset High School