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| Greetings! A letter asking all BTU members who are Boston residents to call their state representatives has gone out. We need your help, and the instructions are easy to follow. Please make a call to help us out. If you have already made a call, please make another. A similar letter to our members who are not Boston residents will go out, too, this week. We have a time-sensitive opportunity to explain our concerns to legislators. Let's make good use of this activity. Please take the time to call your state representative. Here's your state rep's phone number. If you want to find out whom to call , see here . See Talking Points in below section for help when you make your telephone call. You can also send an email to your state representative. The process is very easy, and will take you no more than one minute. Type in your name and address and an email goes out automatically to your state rep. and to the Speaker of the House. Thank you for participating in this campaign. This Thursday, 12/17, at the BTU, we will host a meeting with Boston state representatives to discuss the bill before the legislature. All are welcome to attend. The meeting starts at 4. Light refreshments will be served. At the membership meeting, we handed out leaflets to be given to parents. We gave out 20,000 and have 15,000 more fliers being printed in Spanish and English. If you want more fliers mailed to you, email Elaine and tell her how many. We have fliers being printed, as well, in Portuguese and Cape Verdean Kriolu. If you want some of these mailed to you, email Elaine and tell her how many. Be sure to specify which flier you need. We are working on a translation of the flier into Vietnamese. We already have one in Mandarin. We should have this flier ready, as well, by late this week. If you want some of these fliers mailed to you, email Elaine and tell her how many. Again, please be sure to specify which flier you need. As soon as you get the fliers you need for your specific school population, please ask a few teachers to hand them out to parents, outside the building. Feel free to share, too, the fliers with the parents council and at every and all opportunities at which you come into contact with parents. We would have preferred to coordinate this activity and hand out all fliers on the same day, but, due to the logistics of printing fliers in different languages and sending the copies to our schools, that will not be possible. Lastly, late last week we got word that the union had won its arbitration award on the matter of incentive-based pay scheme implemented by Exxon Mobil for individual AP teachers at O'Bryant High School. You may recall that Exxon-Mobil, architect of the grant, offered to pay selected staff members with two pots of money. One pot was supposed to go for work done, for example, in teaching summer school, tutoring, and participating in AP professional development. We had no issue with compensation for these events, provided the compensation was fair and just. The second pot was to be granted as a reward/bonus based on individual student test scores. We thought that the second pot, rather than going just to the individual teachers who taught the students senior year ought to be spread out to the entire O'Bryant staff. Our rationale is that the entire staff--not individual teachers--are generally responsible for student success. So we filed a grievance. The arbitrator ruled in our favor, saying essentially that the second pot of money had to be pooled and aggregated for use by the entire staff for professional development purposes or for 'student-related special projects.' Regarding the first pot of money, the arbitrator ruled that it had to be appropriated at the standard contractual rate, nothing less. On both counts, we have prevailed in a manner that we feel is best for our students and our staff. The ruling by the arbitrator closely parallels the tentative settlement we had reached with the school department last Summer before Exxon-Mobil scuttled the arrangement. That decision, reached after on and off discussions over a 15-month period, allowed the 'bonus' to be shared equally among all staff. Exxon-Mobil vetoed the deal. Exxon-Mobil remains unhappy with the the notion that the bonus moneys ought to be shared. According to a report in today's Globe , Exxon Mobil is threatening not to fund any more programs in the city: 'The decision puts the program in jeopardy at O'Bryant, and would probably prevent an anticipated expansion to 10 other city schools next year, said Morton Orlov II, who runs the AP initiative for Mass Insight. "It's terribly unfortunate because we know the program benefits students tremendously,'' Orlov said yesterday.' The decision only 'puts the program in jeopardy' because Exxon-Mobil is threatening to take its ball and go home. The arbitrator, the school department and the union have all agreed that this course of action promotes sound educational policy with an incentive that supports how good schools actually run. Outside expert Exxon-Mobil, the largest publicly-traded company in the world with over $45 Billion in profits last year, apparently knows better than we do when it comes to setting educational policy. Or does it? We believe that student success is tied to a group dynamic, and as such, our position is that the group, not an individual or two, ought to receive any reward or bonus if offered. Long story short, we look forward to working with the school department to develop a system that rewards schools and achievement for teamwork, Exxon Mobil's corporate approach notwithstanding. |
| Talking Points When Calling Your Rep. About Pending Ed Reform Legislation |
Before the legislature next month will be a bill that will change educational policy for the foreseeable future. The bill was approved by the Senate in late November and will be taken up by the House of Representatives in early January. We would like you to make a call to your state representative and ask that he or she support a few changes in the Senate's bill. Here are just a few talking points. The Senate bill as it stands now: 1. Allows the superintendent to require all staff in any 'underperforming' school to reapply for their own positions in the schools. The superintendent can dismiss any teacher or fail to rehire any teacher for good cause. 'Good Cause'-as opposed to 'just cause'-is a step backwards and significantly diminishes our due process protections. There are essentially three levels of 'cause': just cause, good cause, and cause, in order of protection granted, with 'just' being the highest level. Good cause is an inadequate substitute for just cause. The original senate version would have allowed teachers to be fired at will. This is a slight improvement on that, but it is still quite inadequate. Anything less than a just cause provision in this section will be a significant loss. According to the AFT-Mass's interpretation of the bill's language, it appears that other staff, (e.g., paraprofessionals, school secretaries, custodians, and others) have no protection and can be dismissed at will. 2. Allows school committees throughout the state to establish new in-district charter schools (called Horace Mann Schools). Staff remain part of the local teachers' union and get seniority, salary and benefits (undefined)-but that's all. These schools are otherwise exempt from collective bargaining agreements, according to the AFT-Mass. There is no limit on these creations. Worst case scenario: The school committee targets a school, closes it, then reopens it as a Horace Mann Charter. And so on-without limitation. This number of Horace Manns needs a cap and these schools need to have collective bargaining protections. 3. Doubles charter school spending in Boston over a seven-year period, thereby draining an additional $49.5 million from our already-strapped school budget. This will bring the net annual loss in the BPS to $99 million. Looked at another way, the loss of $99 million amounts to almost $1800 per pupil currently enrolled in our schools. Please pick up the telephone and call your state representative. If you don't know whom to call, see here . Let him or her know that you reside in the district, you vote, you work in our schools, and that you care about fixing our underperforming schools. But taking away collective bargaining protections will hurt--not help--these efforts to improve our schools. The best way to do this is to get together a group of people in your building and make the calls as a group effort. You will feel good about it, and each call made is easier than the last. Thank you. |
| Bone Marrow Search for Retired BPS Police Officer |
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We have been asked to help publicize a Bone Marrow Search for retired BPS police officer Stanley Graham. We got the notice too late for last week's bulletin, and the event took place this past Saturday. But we are still asking you to help out. We have included an announcement that describes Stanley Graham and the struggle he is facing. If there is another event scheduled, we will publicize it as well. |
| Science Social--Great Event, Great People |
Announcing: Boston Science Teachers' December Science Social!! Come join us Friday, 12/18, for the December Social. Appetizers will once again be generously provided by the UMass Boston COSMIC (Center for Math and Science in Context) office.
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| GLSEN Massachusetts Educator Retreat |
On the weekend of January 29-31, GLSEN Massachusetts will hold its annual retreat in Provincetown, MA, to support educators who wish to be open, out, and supportive in their school communities. The retreat is open to LGBT and straight ally adults working in any school system (pre-K through college). It is intended to provide networking opportunities, information about policies and rights, and strategies for building personal and professional support networks. Register by December 23, and the price for the 2010 Educator Retreat will be the same as last year! For more information, please contact or visit. |
| Meeting on State Deferred Comp Plan--Tax Advantaged Savings Plan |
On 12/16 the BTU will host a meeting with Mr. Nick Baseel, a representative from the state's MASS SMART plan. MASS SMART is the state Deferred Compensation Plan, also knows as a 457 plan. The plan works similarly to other 403b plans except it offers low cost mutual funds only to participants. Tax advantages et al are essentially the same. You can learn more here or can attend the meeting with Mr. Baseel. |
| BTU Adult Party |
Big Wishes for Little Wanderers . Please help The Home for Little Wanderers provide children with a gift this holiday season. Please bring an unwrapped gift to the holiday party. For more information or to view a child's specific wish list please visit . |
| BEAM Holiday Party |
BEAM Annual Holiday Affair will be held at the Hotel Marlowe 25 Edwin H Land Blvd., Cambridge, MA Thursday, December 17, 2009 6:00-11:00p.m. Tickets are $45 in advance, $50 at door. Hors d'oeuvres, Cash Bar, Jazz, Dancing. For more information call 617-445-2088 or 617-510-2210. |
| Dates--School Site Council Training, Parties |
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| Children's Holiday Party |
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| Want to Include Immigration in Your Teaching? |
Want to understand your immigrant students? Need free PDPs?
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| BTU School Seeks Tutoring Center Coordinator |
The Tutoring Center Coordinator at the Boston Teachers Union School will be responsible for directing the activities of a new after-school Tutoring Center. The Tutoring Center is designed to accelerate the academic development of students in grades 1, 2 and 6 who are struggling with grade level material. The Center will be open Mon, Tues and Wed from 3-5:15 starting in mid January. Specific responsibilities include:
Position will be compensated at the BTU hourly rate ($40.82) for 10 hours per week which includes prep time. Please send resume ASAP to Betsy Drinan at Boston Teachers Union School, 25 Walk Hill Street, Boston, MA 02130. |
| BPS Announces Language Positions. Posting Follows |
Required: Experience working with English Language Learners Preferred: Bilingual candidates (Spanish, Cape Verdean, Haitian Kreol, Chinese, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Somali, Arabic, other); Elementary certificate, Early Childhood Education certificate, ESL certificate; TBE certificate; SEI category trained, current MELA-O QMA/QMT certificate. Must be willing to travel from site to site in the city. Please submit resumes here. |
| City Swine Flu Clinics Scheduled |
The city has scheduled a series of swine flu clinics, none so far at the BTU. Our suggestion is to get the shot where and when you can. Don't wait for a possible BTU-located clinic. |
Sincerely,
Richard Stutman
BTU President
rstutman@btu.org (work)
617-288-2000
| 2009 -10 School Year | |
| #01 | 08/31/09 |
| #02 | 09/08/09 |
| #03 | 09/14/09 |
| #04 | 09/21/09 |
| #05 | 09/28/09 |
| #06 | 10/05/09 |
| #07 | 10/13/09 |
| #08 | 10/18/09 |
| #09 | 10/26/09 |
| #10 | 11/02/09 |
| #11 | 11/09/09 |
| #11A | 11/11/09 |
| #12 | 11/16/09 |
| #13 | 11/18/09 |
| #14 | 11/23/09 |
| #15 | 11/30/09 |
| #16 | 12/05/09 |