Editor’s note: Sterling insisted the interview Friday with VTDigger.org about his role in the Montpelier controversy be done off the grounds of the Statehouse during a lunch hour break.
[A] school board member who felt strongly about an issue, but also works for a leader in the Vermont Senate, may have run afoul of a code of conduct agreement.
Peter Sterling, who serves as chief of staff to Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, is also a Montpelier School Board member.
Last week Sterling became embroiled in a controversy when he advocated that the Montpelier board leave the Vermont School Boards Association and Vermont Superintendents Association.
Sterling objected to the role the two organizations have played helping Gov. Phil Scott with his proposal to shift contract negotiations over teacher health benefits from local school boards to the state.
Scott says he won’t leave Montpelier without “maximizing” savings that can come from a statewide contract on health care for educators.
Ashe and the Democratic leadership have opposed statewide collective bargaining for teachers’ health care.
The impasse is the primary reason the Legislature delayed adjournment Friday.
In a strongly worded letter to friends, who then circulated it on Facebook, Sterling called the VSBA and VSA “union busters” that are “pimping” the governor’s proposal. Sterling wrote that he did not like Scott’s plan because he doesn’t think it will save taxpayers money.
Scott’s plan would “gut” collective bargaining, Sterling said, and he believes the plan strips teachers of what he called a “fundamental right” to negotiate with their employers, i.e. the local school boards. Sterling also said he has worked for unions, organized unions and walked picket lines during three decades supporting union rights.
Sterling argued in the letter that taxpayer money should not pay for membership dues to the Vermont School Boards Association and the Vermont Superintendents Association.
Rep. Adam Greshin, I-Warren, who is also a school board member, said that assertion doesn’t make sense because taxpayer dollars also go to the teachers unions. Greshin co-sponsored an amendment that backed the governor’s plan. The measure died Wednesday when House Speaker Mitzi Johnson cast a vote that resulted in a tie.
“If you are going to make this argument, then you have to also keep in mind taxpayers pay all salaries and payroll deductions for school employees’ teacher union dues,” Greshin said.
School board members are required to abide by conflict of interest policies. Montpelier School Board members promise to be ethical and businesslike and to use decorum. More specifically, they agree to represent the interest of all citizens in the school district.
The policy says board members must be accountable to the whole district and that supersedes “any conflicting loyalty a member may have to other advocacy or interest groups, loyalty based upon membership on other boards or staffs.”
Sterling may have tripped over another item in the code of conduct agreement when he went after four board members, by name, whom he said support a statewide contract.
“I think it is important that these four school board members cop to supporting union busting in front of as many Montpelier residents as possible,” Sterling wrote.
In an interview, Sterling said he has not read the code of conduct agreement.
“If I blew it, I apologize,” he said, chalking it up to a case of “unintentional ignorance.”
The Montpelier board’s code of conduct charges members with acting in ways that “protect the integrity and promote the positive image of the district and one another … and never embarrass each other.”
The governor has claimed that by moving negotiations over teacher health care to the state level the state can find up to $26 million in savings for taxpayers while still giving teachers the same benefits they have now. Scott says the savings can be realized only with a statewide contract that would ensure every district has the same deal. The total savings Scott touts assume bargaining will result in an 80/20 premium split.
Sterling defended his push against Scott’s proposal and acknowledged being “very forceful in my argument.”
“I have very strong feelings that the right to collective bargaining is a fundamental right to our democracy,” Sterling said Friday. “I believe collective bargaining, for better or worse, it’s a black-and-white issue. You either believe employees have a right to bargain with their employers to secure their compensation or you don’t.”
In his letter, Sterling said he would put forward a motion at the next school board meeting — which was Wednesday — that would result in the board leaving the two associations.
Rights and Democracy, an advocacy group, promoted Sterling’s proposal on Facebook.
We need people to attend tomorrow night’s Montpelier School Board meeting and show solidarity for teachers and their right to collective bargaining. Tomorrow night, school board member Peter Sterling is introducing a resolution to have the Montpelier school board withdraw its membership from the Vermont School Boards Association and Vermont Superintendents Association due to their support for a disastrous proposal being touted by Republican Gov. Phil Scott.”
Sterling’s letter referred to a VTDigger.org story that he said backed up his assertion that the Vermont School Boards Association and the Vermont Superintendents Association have played a key role in “pimping the governor’s proposal.”
Soon after Scott’s budget address, the VSBA and VSA put together a study panel to look into cost-containment initiatives, one of which was imposing a mandated 80/20 split on teacher health care plans.
They wanted to find areas for cost-savings in kindergarten-through-12 education without hurting school quality, according to Nicole Mace, executive director of the VSBA.
“The health insurance proposal came out of this working group and was unanimously endorsed by our board of directors. We shared it not only with the governor, but with House and Senate leaders in February,” Mace said.
Mace said she believes in Sterling’s First Amendment rights. When asked if he “crossed a line,” she said that is a question for the pro tem.
Ashe said he would not comment on what Sterling does in his personal life.
Sterling said he understands questions about his dual roles but that he tries to be clear and keep them separate. Wherever he goes, he said, whether as a baseball coach or on the Montpelier School Board, where he is in his first term, people also see him as the pro tem’s chief of staff. (Sterling maintained he works for the whole Senate, not just Ashe.)
“So many people wear so many hats, and we all try to do the best we can to separate them,” Sterling said. “There is no doubt that at some level when I’m outside the building I represent the Senate, when I’m coaching baseball, when I’m on the school board, I represent the Senate. I mean I get all that, but most Vermonters are very understanding that you have these different lives. This is a very small state.”
The Montpelier School Board met Wednesday night, and Sterling did not put forward his proposal. He said that after board discussion he agreed to go forward with a separate resolution because it accomplished what he wanted.
But the resolution did not even hint at leaving the VSBA and VSA. Instead, it simply rejected the governor’s plan.
Montpelier board member Steve Hingtgen offered a resolution asserting the board’s support for teachers’ right to bargain locally. It also said the governor’s plan might interfere with negotiations currently going on in Montpelier over health care, salary and benefits for teachers and school employees. The measure passed with five votes on the five-person board; the chair and vice chair did not vote.
Sterling said he doesn’t let his personal views influence his work for the Senate, but added that keeping the roles separate can be a challenge.
“It’s really hard. … The best thing I can try to do is be a professional every day in my office,” he said.
VTDigger reporter Mark Johnson contributed to this story.
