A Message from the Revere School Committee

On June 23, 2020 the Revere School Committee received a letter from a Revere City Councilor regarding three educators who were recently non-renewed consistent with state law. The Councilor speculated that the educators “were non-renewed as retaliation for their union activity”. The Committee would like to take this opportunity to expressly and categorically state that it did not retaliate against any educators for union activity, either acting on its own or through its Superintendent and Principals.

Although the District cannot comment on individual personnel matters, it must be noted that every year the District (like the many other school districts in Massachusetts) reviews all of the provisional teachers without professional teacher status (first three years of employment) and, consistent with the requirements and standards of the state law in Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 71, determines which teachers should return to work for the subsequent year. Any teacher who is renewed after three consecutive years of employment acquires “professional teacher status”, after which a teacher can only be dismissed for “just cause” and has arbitration rights. The statute ensures that school districts have ample time to objectively assess all teachers and to decide which teachers have earned the status of permanent employees.

This year was no different than the previous years in that some teachers without professional teacher status were issued notices of non-renewal for the upcoming school year. When determining which personnel to return, the District does not consider any teacher’s union activity. 

Personnel decisions in the District are not the responsibility of the Committee, nor the City Council; rather, personnel decisions are entrusted to our administrators who operate our schools on a daily basis. The Committee supports the recent personnel decisions of the Superintendent and Principals and assures the City Council and community that no educator was retaliated against for engaging in union activity.

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