« Update: All 11 fire departments bow out of drill | Today | Fire reported in Central Falls' Dexter Street area »

September 27, 2007

Carcieri asks for teacher contract task force

PROVIDENCE -- Citing concern over the delayed opening of school in several districts because of teacher contract battles, Governor Carcieri asked the new chairman of the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education to assemble a task force to study how teacher contracts are negotiated and recommend ways to improve the process.

“…This year the startup of school in our state was marred by labor disputes in a number of our communities,” Carcieri wrote in a Sept. 13 letter to Chairman Robert G. Flanders Jr. “Rather than ensuring students were ready for school … the focus was on such contractual issues as health care benefits and salaries for teachers. This must change.”

Carcieri asked Flanders to select task force members from a wide range of backgrounds -- including teacher unions, school committees, parents, municipal leaders and others, and to report back shortly after the General Assembly convenes in January.

“The governor wants to see if we can avoid strike situations that seem to pop up around the time children go back to school,” Flanders said at a regularly scheduled Regents’ meeting today. Flanders said he will move quickly to assemble the group, begin meetings and present recommendations to lawmakers early next year.

Flanders, a former state Supreme Court justice, was nominated by Carcieri in June to head the board and confirmed by the Senate before its close later that month.

-- Journal staff writer Jennifer D. Jordan

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 6:30 PM | Permalink

Comments

Post a comment

Please be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish.

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)