By Phyllis A. Muzeroll
CLAREMONT, NH–The New Hampshire Public Employee Labor Relations Board issued a ruling yesterday, upholding an arbitrator’s decision that required the Claremont School Board to go back to the old Block Schedule for classes at Stevens High School. The unanimous ruling followed a cease and desist request filed by the teachers’ union earlier this year. Twice, once in April and again in June of last year, the arbitrator agreed with the union, ruling that the board violated the collective bargaining agreement by implementing the new A/B Schedule. The board ruled that the union’s motion “for a cease and desist order is granted. The District shall immediately comply with the complete remedy provided in the second arbitration award and take all necessary steps to revert to the Block Schedule for the 2016-17 school year.” “It will be a challenge to change students schedules when we’re one-fourth into July,” said School Board Chair Brian Rapp. “The impact on kids and their class selection will likely be severe. We will do our best to minimize that impact.” “The school board has now gotten three decisions saying they should not have implemented the new schedule,” said Sugar River Education Association president Tammy Yates. “The school board should honor those decisions. In addition, both the students and teachers at the high school have struggled to deal with increased student demands and increased student stress under the A/B schedule. That needs to be fixed as well.” Full story in Monday’s edition.
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