Boston Teachers Union suit against city to be heard next week

A Suffolk Superior Court judge on Wednesday will hear the Boston Teachers Union’s argument that Mayor Martin Walsh and his school district are violating the law by requiring teachers to work in person under an elevated coronavirus infection rate.

The BTU filed suit against Walsh, Superintendent Brenda Cassellius and the school committee on Thursday, arguing that the city’s elevated test rate — specifically that the city has crossed the 4% positive test rate threshold delineated in a memorandum of agreement signed in September — means that all teachers should be given the option to work remotely.

Online records show that the hearing for the request for the temporary restraining order will take place at 2 p.m. Wednesday in a virtual meeting over Zoom in front of Suffolk Superior Judge Robert Gordon.

“The Mayor and the School Committee are risking the health and welfare of their most disadvantaged students and their staff by violating the” memorandum of agreement, the BTU argued in the complaint.

BTU President Jessica Tang said Thursday that any teachers who feel that working in the schools would put them in danger have the right to work remotely, and that the district can’t discipline staff who don’t show up for in-person learning.

Walsh on Friday morning said he hoped to continue to make progress in discussions with the union on Friday.

“This is about the high-needs kids that are in our districts,” Walsh said, referring to the only children in schools right now, including students in special-education programs and who are homeless.

Walsh on Wednesday announced that the city would “pause” the next phase in the school reopening process, pushing back by at least a week the return of young children. He did so as he said Boston’s seven-day average coronavirus positive test rate has risen to 4.1%,

In light of that, the BTU points to the sentence: “If the citywide COVID-19 positivity rate rises above 4% citywide, BPS will transition to full remote learning for all students, and BTU bargaining unit members will have the option to be remote as well.”

Though Walsh’s office notes the next sentence: “When the Boston Public Health Commission or other City or State authority determines that the school district can reopen, BTU bargaining unit members will be expected to return to BPS buildings.”

On the same day as the mayor’s Wednesday announcement of the elevated rate, the Boston Public Health Commission sent the schools a letter saying it’s safe to continue in-person learning for the small number of high-risk students.

But the BTU points out that Walsh’s announcement of the higher rate came during the one school day a week on which no students are in schools. The union claims that means the BPS never actually “closed” and therefore can’t “reopen,” even with the doctor’s note from the Boston Public Health Commission.

“This is too clever,” the BTU wrote in the lawsuit, just above a footnote it included providing a dictionary definition for “reopen.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2GJ0WIn