EXCLUSIVE: Secretary of Education Meets With Boone Over Claremont Decision

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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Walter Bird Jr., GoLocalWorcester Reporter

Dr. Melinda Boone

The state’s secretary of education will be in Worcester for a 4 p.m. meeting with School Superintendent Dr. Melinda Boone to discuss her Claremont Academy move.

Len Zalauskas, president of the Education Association of Worcester, a teachers' union, told GoLocalWorcester he will be attending the meeting at Boone’s office in the Durkin Administration Building with Paul Reville, state secretary of education; Paul Toner, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association and others.

A spokesperson at the MTA confirmed Toner was out of the office to attend a meeting with Dr. Boone in Worcester.

Zalauskas said discussion will focus on the superintendent’s recent decision to require all teachers at Claremont Academy to reapply for their jobs, with no guarantee they will return to the school. None would be fired, however.

“Hopefully we will resolve this issue,” said Zalauskas, a longtime teacher who has been passionately opposed to what he says was an illegal move against unionized teachers. “We hope that the superintendent will rescind the letter she sent out and that we’ll enter into an agreement to start bargaining in good faith.”

Barring a resolution Wednesday night, picketers plan to protest the Claremont Academy issue outside City Hall Thursday night, starting at 6 p.m.. The protest is scheduled to coincide with a meeting of the Worcester School Committee, and will be moved inside to the third floor if it rains. The EAW is organizing rally to "protest demands the Claremont Academy teachers all reapply for their jobs - a clear violation of both the EAW contract and state law," according to an announcement sent to GoLocalWorcester.

Be sure to come back for more on this evolving story