Word of day for unions and DESE: respect

The brewing animosity between the state’s teachers unions and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has reached another boiling point after a noconfidence vote directed at the DESE and its commissioner, Jeffrey Riley.

More than 100 unions from across the state — representing nearly half of the Massachusetts Teacher Association’s pre-k-12 members — cited lack of leadership, failure to heed data on inschool coronavirus transmission and insufficient consideration of input from districts.

“After surveying our members, we, the elected leaders of our local associations, have overwhelmingly found that Commissioner Riley and DESE have consistently failed to provide high quality administrative leadership, planning, or safe working and learning conditions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” read the declaration from MTA membership.

Anthony Parolisi, president of the Haverhill Education Association — and one of three union heads who testified before DESE on Tuesday — said Riley should touch base with school districts before announcing major changes in policy.

“We worked with local health officials and elected leaders for months to develop an education plan that met DESE guidelines and addressed conditions in our community, only to have the rug pulled out from under us when the commissioner changed the metrics and reopening guidance,” Parolisi said.

That example of detached leadership seems to be a recurring theme in the testy relationship between unions and state education overseers.

Tensions have been high since the start of the school year, when unions took issue with a DESE directive that expected educators to teach from school classrooms, even if their district implemented remote instruction due to the coronavirus.

Merrie Najimy, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, issued a statement at the time claiming the requirement that teachers conduct remote instruction from their classrooms puts educators in school buildings “regardless of safety,” while taking aim at Riley for his perceived tone-deaf, hard-handed leadership approach.

Najimy even inserted the gender card: “The guidance also demonstrates Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley’s fundamental lack of trust of educators, most of whom are women.”

DESE and the unions’ come from politically polaropposite positions in this high-profile tug of war over influence and popular opinion. From the outset, Baker’s Republican administration has advocated for in-school learning, citing the concurring opinions of its health experts that it posed minimal coronavirus risks.

The heavily Democratleaning unions countered with concerns about faulty ventilation systems and the virus vulnerability of older teachers and support staff.

But no matter the desire for in-school learning, current Department of Public Health guidelines limit capacity in most school systems to about 25%.

And caught in the middle of this power struggle of course are the teachers, students and their parentguardians, who must navigate between work and child care to accommodate hybrid or remote learning schedules. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any appetite for compromise on either side of this struggle.

In response to the no-confidence vote, Colleen Quinn, spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Education, stated: “While unions engage in baseless attacks, we remain committed to children’s education and the best interests of staff, students and families and continue to believe that in-person learning is best for the academic and emotional health of our students.”

We’d hoped the availability of mass-produced coronavirus vaccines would eventually end this confrontation, but since the Pfizer and Moderna doses have either a 16 or 18 cutoff age, union concerns about coronavirussusceptible K-12 students will remain. That puts the onus on DESE and the unions to put politics aside and at least reach some semblance of a civil, working relationship that allows for some give-and-take over issues of safety and in-school instruction.