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The fox guarding the chicken coop? Candidates with teacher-union-friendly talking points popping up in suburban school committee races, as powerful MTA seeks a leg up in contract talks

Illegal teacher strikes have rocked Greater Boston over the past few years, from Newton to Haverhill.

They’ve angered many parents, created bitter divisions, and sparked titanic battles with local school committees, some of whom grudgingly struck pay deals they couldn’t afford.

Now an array of teacher-union-friendly candidates is running for school committee seats in some of the same communities that saw classroom walkouts.

Enter the increasingly radical Massachusetts Teachers Association, which is eyeing plans for a statewide referendum to legalize teacher strikes, per Gintautas Dumcius at MASSterList.

Maybe not so coincidentally, the surge in candidates comes as the MTA has proclaimed in The Boston Globe that it will be targeting local school committee races.

All eyes are now on Newton, which saw its well-regarded schools shut down for more than two weeks in early 2024 during a labor showdown that grabbed national headlines.

Raising eyebrows, four candidates have announced plans to run for seats on the Newton School Committee, via a single press release, saying they had been “galvanized by the strike.”

Newton teachers on strike in early 2024

At least three shared the same treasurer as well, a parent who was an outspoken supporter of Newton’s striking teachers and who appeared more than once in the media coverage.

All had the same post office box, along with similar-looking websites.

All four won a strong, though apparently unofficial endorsement, by the No. 2 at the Newton Teachers Association, the MTA’s local affiliate which led the strike.

One of the candidates, Jenna Miara, a legal aid lawyer and parent of two children in Newton schools, voiced strong support on social media for the strike.

“We have to continue to direct that anger at city leaders – not the Newton Teachers Association,” Miara wrote in one post, which she credited with “working tirelessly to make things right for our students and our community.”

Another, Jim Murphy, a retired MTA member and teacher, wrote a piece for the state teachers’ union house publication.

While acknowledging the strike “put a strain on the community,” Murphy judged it a success, arguing it resulted in a “much better contract” than the union would have received otherwise, had it been unwilling to endure “the 11-day ordeal.”

A third candidate, Bruce Hedison is a retired teacher who at one point served as co-president of the Hudson teachers union.

After the Newton strike ended, Hedison appeared before the Newton School Committee to complain about the labor relations firm the panel relied on during its talks with the teachers union, blaming it for the acrimony, according to meeting minutes published in the Fig City News.

In response to Contrarian Boston’s questions, two of the candidates, Miara and Murphy, denied being part of a “slate” or being recruited by the teachers’ union.

“Just as I am an independent candidate, I will be an independent member of the Newton School Committee guided solely by what is best for Newton’s students,” Miara said in a text.

Miara and Murphy stressed that they are first-time candidates who accepted some initial help getting their campaigns up and running.

Both have since switched campaign treasurers after initially listing Lindsey Gulden, the outspoken Newton parent and strike supporter.

“If you have a more open way of starting negotiations, I don’t think you get to that point,” Murphy said when asked how he would handle an illegal strike, touting past experience as both an administrator and local union official.

A spokesperson for the MTA, who declined to say what communities and school committee races the state teachers union is eyeing, said there are no “contributions to report.”

Any decision to contribute to School Committee candidates would be driven by the Newton Teachers Association, the local union, according to the spokesperson.

Still, the MTA’s political action committee contributed more than $4,000 in mailers, postage and in-kind staff work in Christopher Shepley’s successful March bid to win a seat on the Andover School Committee, town records show.

So we’ll see what happens in Newton.

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