Westborough teachers adopt work-to-rule job action
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Westborough - Already cantankerous, the relationship between the School Committee and the district office and the Westborough Teachers Association got a little bit more so at the School Committee's April 2 meeting.

Without a contract since July 1, 2007, the Teachers Association recently decided to begin work-to-rule, a job action in which teachers do no more than the minimum required, including showing up just before the school day starts and leaving just after it ends. The action started April 1.

At the April 2 School Committee meeting, Carolyn Spring, a Westborough resident who described herself as a parent of two High School students, told the committee during the Citizen's Request portion of the meeting that she had been told by other parents that the work-to-rule job action included teachers not writing letters of recommendation for students to include in their applications to colleges.

"I'm imploring you to do something so students are not the ones getting hurt because of this contract disagreement," Spring said to the School Committee.

Katherine McManus, the student representative to the School Committee, said she had heard from fellow students that teachers had refused to write letters of recommendation for them, saying they'd like to, but because of the stalled contract negotiations and the work-to-rule job action, they would not.

"It's hard enough to get the courage up to ask a teacher who you feel you barely know to write a letter saying how wonderful a student you are and to send if off to a college thousands of miles away," McManus said during the meeting, following Spring's comments. "To then be turned down by that teacher is really, really difficult."

Anne Towle, Westborough's Superintendent of Schools, responded to the issue at the meeting.

"Not writing letters of recommendation is not encompassed in the work-torule job action guidelines. It is considered a strike activity," Towle said. "Writing recommendations is a required job duty even during a work-to-rule job action. I've addressed this issue once already and I'll address it again. This is not acceptable and we've made it clear it's not acceptable."

On April 3, when reached in her office, Towle said she began to address the issue the night of the School Committee meeting.

"I spoke with Bonnie Ross, the teachers union president, after the meeting, in the hallway and she was aware of the situation and agreed that it was not an acceptable part of work-to-rule," Towle said. "Bonnie said to me, 'Give me 24 hours and I'll have the situation taken care of,' and I'm sure she will."

Towle said when Spring brought up the issue at the School Committee meeting, it was the first she heard of the action taking place.

"I hadn't heard about it before that," Towle said, "but work-to-rule only started the day before, so how many instances could there have been in just that one day?"