WARDSBORO — With anti-union sentiment running high in some quarters, I feel it important to correct a small but not insignificant, inaccuracy printed in “Small schools at crossroads in Vermont” [The Commons, Feb. 23].
In part of your interview with Windham Central Supervisory Union superintendent Steven John, you state that “his union office works with nine different boards to manage [...] nine separate contracts with teachers.”
This is not true. There is, in fact, a single contract that covers six groups of teachers within the supervisory union. A seventh is currently participating in the negotiations for a renewal of this contract.
This is not to suggest that Steven doesn't have too much to do, only that negotiating nine teacher contracts is not a contributing factor. The existence of the “master agreement” is, by the way, due to union initiatives.