LISBON — As Lisbon teachers approach six months without a contract, negotiations between the Lisbon Education Association and Lisbon schools continue.
At a school board meeting Monday night, Lisbon Schools Superintendent Richard Green said neither he nor board members could comment on the negotiations.
Lisbon Education Association President Rick Beaulé briefly spoke and issued a written statement from the union.
“The negotiations are contentious,” Beaulé said as board members went into an executive session.
In his statement on the 165 days without a contract, Beaulé said: “Lisbon teachers work hard every day for the schools our students deserve, and feel disrespected and underappreciated by the District and the School Committee. They are frustrated that for more than a year they’ve been shut down and ignored when they’ve asked for support from a school district that claims to care about its schools and students — you can’t care about kids if you don’t care about the people who are educating them every day.”
Beaulé said Lisbon teachers are paid less than most surrounding districts and less than Maine’s new minimum wage for educators. The 129th Legislature passed a bill requiring a $40,000 annual minimum wage for the school year beginning in 2022. The law took a stepped approach beginning in 2020, requiring a $35,000 minimum in 2020 and $37,500 in 2021.
According to information from the Maine Education Association, teachers in Lisbon with two years or less under their belts are making $37,723.
The Sun Journal reached out to Green for additional comment, but he was not immediately available.
“With inflation reaching record high levels over the last year, our already underpaid teachers are asking for support to keep them working in Lisbon,” the union’s statement continued. “They deserve better, and they deserve to be respected — and that starts with a salary that keeps up with inflation … In order to retain and attract teachers to this district we need to pay them a salary that is reasonable and respectable. Teachers won’t stay in Lisbon if they can go one or two towns over and make thousands of dollars more.”
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