MARBLEHEAD — Students will be allowed to resume extracurricular activities while teachers are on strike, Interim Superintendent John Robidoux said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
A Superior Court in Lawrence also ruled Thursday afternoon the Marblehead Education Association will have to pay a $50,000 fine, in addition to a $10,000 fine every day they strike. The court ruled Tuesday the strike is illegal because municipal employees are not allowed to strike under state law.
The fine is the same one a judge ruled earlier this week striking teachers in Beverly and Gloucester will have to pay.
Contract negotiations produced no progress Thursday, Marblehead Education Association Co-President Johnathan Heller said at a Thursday night press conference.
“The pace of bargaining is maddeningly slow,” he said. “We believe this is intentional to allow court fines to hit the MEA.”
The MEA said at the press conference that the School Committee did not provided any counterproposals Thursday.
It is also not deterred by the fines, the union said, adding that “the town is behind us.”
As for Robidoux’s announcement Thursday, this reverses an earlier decision to cancel all after-school activities while teachers are striking. Robidoux’s update came after group of 21 students filed an emergency injunction with Essex Superior Court this week to lift the ban.
A decision had not been made in that case before Robidoux’s announcement Thursday.
“After taking time to do my due diligence and meet with the Athletic Director and our administrative team, I have determined that we can equitably and safely allow for high school athletic and extracurricular activities to take place as scheduled this weekend,” he said in the statement.
Teams and clubs will be supported by non-teacher, non-union personnel during these activities.
“This is just a small step in normalizing the student’s experience during these challenging times,” Robidoux said. “As the leader, I will continue to monitor the ongoing situation and make decisions accordingly. I remain cautiously optimistic that the ongoing mediation will result in an agreement and students will be back within the classrooms in short order.”
He initially made the decision to cancel extracurriculars “in accordance with the strike that is taking place because educators indicated that they would not be coming to work.”
In the days following that decision, made shortly after teachers voted last Friday to go on strike if a contract hadn’t been reached over the weekend, the MEA said it had no problem with members resuming their roles as club and team supervisors during the strike.
“We are thrilled to hear that Interim Superintendent John Robidoux and the Marblehead School Committee have finally acknowledged what we have been saying for days: holding our students out of sports and other extracurricular activities was first and foremost a CHOICE, and a completely unnecessary one,” the MEA said in a statement.
“We now hope that they will similarly reverse course regarding their refusal to meet with us face to face in bargaining, another completely unnecessary CHOICE. Let’s get this contract done, and let’s come together tonight to announce that we will all be back in school tomorrow.”
School remained closed Thursday while teachers rallied at Seaside Park and spoke about “unlivable” wages for paraprofessionals and tutors, as they said.
The MEA’s proposals for paraprofessional pay would see them earn between $22,680 and $30,000 annually between years one and four, the union said. The committee is offering a pay scale between $20,520 and $21,351.
Many paraprofessionals in the district currently make less than $20,000 a year.
For tutors, the MEA is fighting for a pay scale of $30,022 to $35,262 between years one and four. The School Committee is offering between $27,713 and $28,836.
The union and School Committee also remain at an impasse over paid parental leave and teacher salaries.
Marblehead educators currently make between $52,000 and nearly $97,000, depending on their seniority and certification level, according to data from the School Committee.
The School Committee said in a statement earlier this week that its wage increase proposal would raise the starting pay for teachers to $66,000 over four years and bring the average teacher salary to more than $100,000, with its most qualified and senior educators making about $108,000.
The MEA said this proposal would keep Marblehead educators among the lowest of 14 North Shore school districts.
Educators and school officials continue to negotiate Thursday.
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com.