Teachers of the Bristol Warren Regional School District deserve better than to have John A. Leidecker represent them at the negotiating table. Hardworking and caring, as most of the teachers surely are, they deserve someone who will act professionally on their behalf.
Sending taunting and harassing e-mails behind fake names to a state legislator because of differing views on education policies and funding are childish acts, plain and simple.
On Monday, Judge Stephen Isherwood found Mr. Leidecker, an assistant executive director for the National Education Association of Rhode Island, guilty of cyberstalking former Bristol-Warren Rep. Douglas W. Gablinske.
Though these were assumedly private actions on his part, Mr. Leidecker has muddied the waters in Bristol and Warren. He has been and still is the lead negotiator from the state NEA team working for the better part of a year with representatives of the Bristol Warren Education Association in negotiating a new teachers’ contract with the school administration and school committee representatives. A contract that still hadn’t been hammered out before the start of the school year.
A contract that is fair and sustainable to the towns must be built on good will. And this whole episode leaves nothing but a bad taste in the mouth.
Mr. Leidecker is one of eight assistant executive directors for NEARI. Moving him to work in another part of the state and bringing in a fresh face to the negotiating table would go a long way to rebuilding good will in these parts and would give the teachers the professional representation they deserve.
Comments
focus 7 months, 1 week ago
How can a convicted liar be a negotiator? Answer: Negotiate for "Teachers of the Bristol Warren Regional School District".
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