By Tom Tolen / news@whmi.com


Up to 100 Brighton teachers plan to take part in a rally this evening prior to the Brighton Board of Education meeting to show their displeasure with the lack of a resolution on the salary aspect of the current contract with the district. The rally is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at the corner of Church and Main, outside the Brighton Education and Community Center (BECC) building. The board session will take place at 7 p.m. in a meeting that was previously scheduled for the Brighton Performing Arts Center. It will be online, and people can access it by going to the district website and following the prompts.

Brighton Education Association President Barry Goode says the rally is in response to the lack of communication with the district over an impasse regarding teacher salaries. A wage and benefit reopener is part of the three-year contract that was ratified by both parties last year. The BEA bargaining committee, representing about 325 district teachers, walked out of a negotiating session on Sept. 1st, contending the talks were not making any progress.

At last report, the district's offer was for the teachers to take a pay cut, while Goode says they deserve a salary increase, saying the district is in “excellent” financial condition, and they have just this year returned to the pay scale they had in 2008 after taking a voluntary, 7% cut when the recession hit. The meeting will be the first for newly-hired superintendent Matthew Outlaw, who was unavailable for immediate comment on the teacher situation.