TIVERTON — On the day School Committee Chairwoman Denise deMedeiros issued a statement saying that teachers weren’t writing letters of recommendation for high school seniors, there were already 43 such letters in students’ files, the director of guidance said last night.

By the close of school yesterday, teachers had written a total of 63 recommendation letters for seniors applying to college, including two for deMedeiros’ daughter, guidance director Elizabeth Farley told the School Committee at a meeting last night.

“Stop lying to the press. Stop lying to the press,” teachers chanted from the audience of the high school auditorium.

The accusations marked the latest turn in a labor dispute that has become increasingly acrimonious and personal, with nearly 200 members of NEA-Tiverton working without a contract under court order.

Last night, deMedeiros told Farley, “As for my daughter, we’re not going to get into it.”

DeMedeiros cut off another teacher who tried to speak, and the committee swiftly voted to adjourn.

A few minutes later, as a reporter approached an open backstage door, deMedeiros slammed it closed.

Later in the evening, deMedeiros said teachers can say anything they want about public officials, but “my children have privacy rights.” Farley “crossed the line,” she said.

DeMedeiros said some of the letters of recommendation might have been written during the summer and at the start of the school year, before the union voted to engage in “contract compliance.”

According to union spokesman Patrick Crowley, the teachers voted to continue performing extra duties on behalf of students but to withhold voluntary services that benefit the administration.

After that vote, deMedeiros said late last night, teachers had been telling seniors they didn’t know whether they could write the recommendation letters.

“No matter what I say, they’re going to twist my words,” deMedeiros said.

“That’s their strategy,” she said.

But “all this nonsense” isn’t getting the two sides any closer to a contract, she said.

The allegations that teachers were withholding services came in a statement a week ago that announced the School Committee had declared an impasse in mediation and voted to seek arbitration.

As of last night, the committee had not taken the steps necessary to file the arbitration papers, according to Crowley, the union spokesman.

Neither deMedeiros nor Schools Supt. William J. Rearick could say whether the papers had been filed.

Last week, Rearick said there was so much confusion about “contract compliance” that the union leadership had to hold meetings in each school building “to clarify for teachers what they can and cannot do.”

Before the building-level meetings, students were telling administrators and their parents that teachers had refused to serve as class advisers, Rearick said.

“The parents are very upset that kids are being used as pawns, especially at the high school,” Rearick said last week.

“Another issue is that the teachers talk about the dispute at the high school and the middle school” in class, Rearick said.

“The union had to send an internal memo to the teachers telling them to knock it off,” he said.

Crowley replied, “It’s baffling that he would rely on what the students are telling him to make determinations in a situation like this.”

“That’s really immature,” Crowley said.

Meanwhile, the committee last night denied a grievance filed by the union alleging that it had violated the contract in docking teachers’ pay for the day they were on strike in early September.

The committee voted without comments or questions about Crowley’s arguments, among them that:

•The contract requires the School Department to pay teachers in 26 equal installments, not on a daily or hourly basis.

•It will cost the district extra to run a 27th payroll to pay for a single day’s work when it is finally made up.

•The denial of pay amounted to retribution against union members for participating in union activities, which is also prohibited by the contract.

gmacris@projo.com