Medford teachers rally outside City Hall, deliver Mayor Lungo-Koehn no confidence vote
MEDFORD - More than 100 teachers rallied at Medford City Hall late Monday afternoon. They marched into the building to hand Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and the school committee their vote of no confidence.
The mayor was not there to receive the letter, so the teachers taped it to her door.
Charlene Douglass, President of the Medford Teachers Association said, "94% of our members have no confidence in the mayor and school committee to get this contract ratified."
The teacher's union has been without a contract for a year and half. Negotiations are ongoing. The city said they've reached and signed a tentative agreement with the union but it has not yet been ratified.
"We just want something fair," said teacher Rich Cormio. "The city, whatever the situation they're in, we didn't cause that. We want what is rightfully ours."
Teachers are looking for a 3% increase in compensation and better benefits. Katie Pyrez is a 4th grade elementary teacher, who says she's actually had to buy most of the supplies for her classroom.
"I purchased all the tables for my classroom rather than desks," Pyrez said. "We have a lot of students that come from underprivileged families, so I am buying their school supplies."
The city released a statement saying, "We always aim to do the right thing, especially for our hardworking teachers, which is how we had been able to reach a signed tentative agreement with the leadership of the teachers union."
"There are less and less teachers, less and less people going into the field of education," Douglass said. "We want to attract the best here in Medford so in order to do that we want a compensation package that is better than our surrounding communities."
Both bargaining teams will meet on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the contract. There are no talks of a strike at this point.