The following letter to the editor was submitted by Andover resident Oscar Gillette, a 2023 Andover High School graduate. The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Andover News. You can learn more about our policy on opinion and commentary on our Mission and Policies page.
I am writing to respond to Dave Crow’s opinion letter recently published in favor of Emily DiCesaro and in opposition to Jacob Tamarkin and Christopher Shepley. The letter attacks the challengers in this race for being supported by the Andover Education Association. It argues that this displays a prioritization of teachers over students. It argues that this is a conflict of interest, framing the union as diametrically opposed to the School Committee. Finally it emphasizes that School Committee members need to have “listening skills.”
These arguments display the misguided approach to governance that our School Committee has used for the past several years. It has seen the teacher union as an opponent, and it has picked every fight possible with the union, at the cost of the town and its students. It sees anything good for teachers as being bad for students, even when the union asks for smaller class sizes and mental health resources for students. Even when students organized to support the union during the strike, they still continued with their rhetoric trying to convince the town that the union’s demands were bad for students. Teachers and students both see that our School Committee has wasted funds on unnecessary administrative positions to justify retaliatory firing of teachers. Teachers and students both see that these firings increased class sizes, removed social workers, and were harmful to students. Teachers and students both understand that teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions.
The union is not the School Committee’s opponent, and the School Committee’s oppositional view of the union led to its refusal to negotiate in good faith with the union. This forced the union to strike and hurt the town. The School Committee was not willing to even give an inch in negotiations, it was not willing to agree to a living wage for IA’s. The unreasonable refusals of the School Committee, even though it was clear that the town supported the union, forced the town into a prolonged strike.
I do agree with Dave Crow that we need a School Committee with listening skills, in fact last September I wrote a letter to the townsman titled “Andover Deserves a School Committee that Listens.” Looking back at DiCesaro and Sandis Wright’s term, they have consistently created problems because of their refusal to listen to the community. The community made clear that we supported the union during the negotiations to prevent a strike, they ignored this, and insisted that the community opposed the demands, and insisted that with the community support they would win the strike. They were wrong, the community supported the union, and the Committee ended up having to give in to the community and the union’s demands. Wright and DiCesaro then supported the budget proposal to increase administrative positions and fire several teachers. The community made clear that it did not support this. We packed meetings and informal forums, we even got a clear mandate when the candidates opposing the proposal Lauren Diffenbach and Shauna Murray swept the 2024 School Committee elections, we built on that mandate when we passed an amendment at town meeting to increase the education budget. DiCesaro and Wright did not listen to the community, they continued on with the cuts.
To bash the challengers this year for being supported by the union, and build up the incumbents for their listening skills, is deeply ironic. We cannot have a School Committee that continues on with this scorched earth anti-union approach regardless of the community’s position and regardless of the cost to the town.
Oscar Gillette
Andover
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