The Chairman of the Board of Selectmen feels slighted after the School Committee ratified a contract with teachers without his input.

The School Committee was sent a letter by the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen David Walsh asking the committee to refrain on voting on the collective bargaining agreement because he did not feel the town was educated on the substance and the impact of the agreement.

By law a chief executive of the town or the executive’s designee is supposed to participate and vote as a member of the town’s school committee whenever the committee negotiates with school employees. Walsh said in his letter that during past rounds of bargaining the School Committee has consistently complied with this provision.

“The Board of Selectmen’s opinion is that the School Committee violated the law and manner in which it has undertaken the current round of the collective bargaining by its failure to at least invite a representative of the general government to participate and vote whenever negotiations with the school employees were being discussed by the School Committee,” wrote Walsh.

The School Committee said they have fulfilled the law by inviting the representative although he was unable to attend.

Chairwoman of the School Committee Elizabeth Hayes said that the committee has postponed voting at their last meeting to give the representative enough time to get caught up.

“We purposely waited until tonight so he could be here and receive information,” said Hayes.

The School Committee did approve the ratification of the East Bridgewater Education Association Collective Bargaining Agreement at their meeting last Wednesday.

Walsh said that he is not surprised the committee still voted.

“Through the entire process we [the Board of Selectmen] made inquiries to attend meetings,” said Walsh. “When they started negotiations we had a desire for the board to be involved. They only invited us the night before the executive session that they we’re voting after.”

Walsh made it clear that from the town’s side they were never invited by the School Committee. He said that he asked to attend, and that he doesn’t understand why this happened after the committee proclaimed how they want to work with the town.

Walsh said that the committee knew that either the Town Administrator George Samia or his designee (Chairman of the Board of Selectman) wished to be a part of the process.

Last year, Walsh was involved with negotiations and attended every session so they know he had an interest, he said.

He feels that the committee “signed an exorbitant contract.”