The union that represents Waltham Public School teachers last night said it would withdraw from the federal Race To The Top program, which would cost the district over $300,000, if it did not receive a new contract by Jan. 5.

Waltham Public School Superintendent Susan Nicholson, however, indicated the Waltham Educator's Association, can’t withdraw from RTTT without the school district’s approval.

The issue arose in the midst of negotiations between the WEA and School Committee over a new three-year contract.

At the heart of the dispute — the WEA asserts that the school committee has greatly delayed negotiations since they began in January 2010, after the previous contact expired, according to WEA President George Viens. Teachers have been working without a contract for about 17 months, according to School Committee member Robert Cincotta.

“We’re calling on you to take a fresh approach because it hasn’t worked. We are taking a fresh approach. We are not going to continue to just cooperate and be abused, or we wont even come to the table,” Viens told the School Committee at the start of the Wednesday, Dec. 7 School Committee meeting at Waltham High School. 

School Committee member Lisa Limonciello, who is the designated negotiator for the committee, would not comment on the dispute and referred questions to the committee’s attorney. Nicholson would also not comment on Viens’s comments.

As a result of the dispute, the WEA has told the School Committee, in a letter, that it will withdraw from the federal Race To The Top Program, which gives the school district additional funding as long as it follows several new initiatives, if it does not settle the contract by Jan. 5, 2012, Viens said. Withdrawing from the RTTT program, which requires school districts and teacher unions start negotiations earlier, could cost the district a substantial amount of funding, according to Viens.

If the Waltham schools did eventually withdraw from the RTTT program, it would cost them $175,500 this year, $105,200 next year, and $56,200 the year after.

Also, the WEA will “investigate,” whether it should stop volunteering for certain school program if it does not receive a new contract, Viens said. He, however, said the union would not do anything that would negatively impact students.

Technically, withdrawing from the RTTT program means the WEA would be cancelling an agreement with the district that says either the district or WEA can stop participating in RTTT at any time, according to Viens. Nicholson, however, said all parties in the agreement must approve of withdrawing from program.

NATURE OF THE DISPUTE

Overall, Viens said the committee has greatly inhibited the negotiations in several ways. One way — only one or two School Committee members typically attend private negotiation meetings, meaning they lack enough people to take formal action on any proposed contracts, according to Viens. That means those committee members have to report back to the full committee, thereby delaying the process, Viens said.

“We feel like they are not interested in getting a contract,” Viens said.

Another reason for the delays, Viens said, is the School Committee’s process for negotiations. The committee’s professional negotiator had not been reporting its talks with the WEA back to the School Committee, Viens said. 

Also at issue is the School Committee’s appointed designee not attending negotiation meetings since June, Viens said.

Also, Viens said the Massachusetts Labor Relations Board, which oversees public employee labor negotiations, told the School Committee earlier this year that it had violated the rules of negotiations by implementing proposed contract terms before ever finalizing them in a legal agreement. The School Committee, however, claimed it broke no rules, Viens said. The finding came as a result of a WEA complaint, Viens said. 

The WEA has asked to speak with Mayor Jeanette McCarthy, who also serves as the chairman of the School Committee, to settle the dispute, but the committee told her she cant do that, according to Viens.