Bulletin_08_23

September 4-Opening Day. Your administrator gets 30 minutes at the start of the day and you get the rest of the time to organize your room.

September 5-the BTU gets 30 minutes at the start of the day, and the administrator gets the rest of the day. During the union's 30 minutes time there'll be a union meeting conducted. For part of the meeting we'd like Building Rep.'s to use the specially-prepared Opening Day newspapers, which are being mailed out in packets of 25 to the homes of all building reps.

First payday for teachers is Friday, September 7; first payday for paras and substitute teachers is September 21. The superintentendent's school salary differential will be in the first paychecks.

New teacher orientation - thank you to those members who volunteered to help at U Mass this week. Your help in extending a welcome to our new teachers was much appreciated by all. Close to 500 new teachers have been hired. Please extend a hearty BTU welcome to our new members when you meet them in your schools.

Severance Pay: Those who retired in June 07 and who took advantage of the $1500 Early Retirement Incentive have just received their severance application. The calculation is slightly off, and will be adjusted. 79 people are affected. Each will shortly receive a corrected application. Do nothing with the first application.

The Boston School Committee and the BTU would like to announce the second year of the Professional Leadership Projects, which creates opportunities for professional growth and leadership responsibilities while advancing school achievement goals. Project Leaders earn a 5% stipend for 2.5 hours/week service for the 07- 08 school year. The Joint BPS/BTU Committee invites all BTU members (not substitutes) to apply for the Professional Leadership Project.....read more . Application download here .

Catch the Red Sox vs. Toronto - Labor Day. The Mass. AFL-CIO, our state labor affiliate, is sponsoring a campaign to 'take back Labor Day.' The campaign is a way for the Labor Movement to reclaim the holiday to recognize our history, struggles, and achievements. The AFL-CIO is committing some funds to run a radio advertisement buy on the Red Sox Radio Network. We have eight tickets to give away. We have to give these tickets away quickly, as the game is about to be upon us. We will do the following to auction off the tickets, which are in right field, under the Budweiser sign, I am told:

2 tickets to one of the 500 new teachers who attended the U. Mass orientation this week AND who filled out a union application card. We will draw from the applications submitted.
2 tickets to one of the teachers or paras who volunteered for the Supermarket Standout we held last December. You may remember that more than 100 or so of us leafleted supermarkets last December explaining the contract issues we faced. Paid BTU staff are not eligible.
2 tickets to one of the teachers or paras who volunteered this week at U Mass when we welcomed 500 new teachers. Paid BTU staff are not eligible.
2 tickets to a winner of a silent auction, for a donation to Rosie's Place. Send bids to rstutman@btu.org . Anyone is eligible.

The peer assistant position is posted, and the posting is open ended, though some of the four positions are slated to be filled immediately. It is expected that there may still be a vacancy or two remaining after the rounds of initial interviews. All applications will be reviewed. Briefly, the peer assistant position is a full time BTU position designed to assist and work with teachers who voluntarily seek help in improving their performance.

PDP Issue revisited. Many of you have taken TERC II this summer. Some have opted for graduate credits, some for in-service, and some for PDPs only. An issue has arisen concerning homework. To obtain in-service or graduate credit, homework is permissible. The provider can require some sort of work, whether it be homework a paper, or whatever. On the PDP issue, the matter gets a bit more complicated.

On the one hand, we have a signed contract with the school department, and the contract language is unequivocal and binding: "Teachers will receive a PDP certificate at the end of the school year for all time spent in professional development activities." The contract does not say that the issuance of a certificate is conditional on the submission of homework.

State Law does require that for PDPs a teacher muster show an ‘observable demonstration of learning.' This could be homework or, for example, it could be lesson planning. We have talked to a variety of people both in and out of the school department, who are familiar with this issue. Here's the bottom line: The school department has the legal authority to grant PDPs for classroom time—without homework—spent this summer as long as principals stipulate that teachers who attended the sessions this summer are actually using TERC II this school year in their classrooms. The ‘observable demonstration of learning' need not be homework. Those denied the certificate should call or email Mike McLaughlin at mmclaughlin@btu.org and a grievance will be filed.

By the way, in-service credits are interchangeable with graduate credits and can be used for salary lane advancement just like graduate credits. The lifetime limit of 20 in-service credits was increased to 30 in the last contract. All in-service credits are equal, and all are equal to graduate credits for lane advancement.

Email List Serve -If you have received this email but have friends and colleagues who have not, could you please pass this email along to them and let them know they can sign up at http://www.btu.org/topnavbar/esubscribe.html ? Thank you. Approximately 6000 members now belong to our list serve. It is the quickest, most effective way to inform the membership.

Currently teachers can purchase time in the retirement system for pre-1973 non-public school service. Parochial school teachers came under Social Security in 1973, so that date was chosen for the cutoff when the bill authorizing non-public school service, Chapter 333 of the Acts of 1992, was passed. S 1631 allows for the purchase of non-public school service for service in 1973 and subsequent years without regard to Social Security coverage . S 1631 will be heard by the Public Service Committee on September 27.

Individualized Benchmark Testing - All K2 - 3 teachers will be provided with the equivalent of two days of substitute coverage while administering individualized benchmark testing. One day's equivalency will be given in September, the other in June. This is a contractual mandate; make sure, if eligible, you take advantage of the coverage. This also applies to superintendent's schools.

The BTU has received an update from John McDonough, the BPS Chief Financial Officer, as to the status of converting paras to the 26 payment plan, (for those paras who requested the 26 payments). We are very disappointed to hear that after many, many meetings and discussions regarding the implementation of the provisions of the agreement, we still have unresolved issues and the change will not be implemented this September. The union will be filing a grievance. Jenna Fitzgerald, Paraprofessional/Substitute Teacher Field Rep.

Anyone who has received either an interim or an overall performance evaluation of Does Not Meet Standards should contact either Michael ( mmclaughlin@btu.org ) or Caren Carew ( ccarew@btu.org ,). Please do not procrastinate in doing so.

What has changed? Only one thing. You work an extra hour per day, teachers and paras, and receive a salary differential for your work. The differential will be in the 9/7 (teacher) or 9/21 paycheck (para). This pay, too, is at your real hourly rate, and is retirement worthy. If you work the additional 20 hours of PD and it is expected that most in superintedent's schools will, the payroll will be handled separately. This pay, too, is at your real hourly rate, and is retirement worthy. The 20 hours is scheduled by the faculty.

What else has changed? Nothing, nil, nothing . All the rules, all the working conditions, all the grievance rights have stayed the same.

On Class Size: Class size in all regular education classes at Superintendents' Schools have decreased by two students in every grade level. Violations are grieveable as they are in every other school. Each year, hundreds (!) of our members file these grievances and many, many win huge sums of money because the school department refuses to honor the class size provisions we hold dearly. Presumably the same violations will occur this year in superintendent's schools. These grievances, with the reduced class size, can and ought to be filed. This, you may remember, was the one of the key issues we won during the last round of negotiations.

Grade	Traditional Schools	Superintendent's Schools
K1, K2 , Grade 1, Grade 2	22	20
Grades 3-5	25	23
Grades 6-8	28	26
Grades 9-12	31	29

All other class size maxima (sped, ELL, and so on) are also grievable in superintendent's schools, just as they are grievable in other, non-superintendent's schools. All class size enforcement powers are intact in superintendent's schools.

Presenters: Al Bird, Denise Henderson and Kristen Pinto
Saturdays: 9/29, 10/13 and 10/27
Time: 8AM - 12PM
Location: Boston Teachers Union
Contact: kpinto@boston.k12.ma.us
Reserve your seat early as space is limited.

Want to have some fun and a little exercise? The School Personnel Bowling League starts on Monday, September 10, 2007 at Boston Bowl on Morrissey Blvd. in Dorchester at 3:45 PM . There are cash prizes and a bowling banquet in May. Please plan to join us! All levels of bowlers are welcome. Contact Sandy at 781-340-6281 or Judy at 781-961-5450.

Citywide Bike Ride & Festival

Coming in September is Boston 's only citywide bike ride & festival and it benefits Boston School kids.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino's Hub On Wheels
Citywide Bike Ride & Festival
Sunday, September 23, 2007

Proceeds from Hub on Wheels will enable a parent and child in the Boston Public Schools to receive the technology and the skills they need to succeed in today's world through Technology Goes Home.

Sign up to ride with Team Boston Public Schools now. It's a great time and a great cause.

Our friends at the Connolly Library in Jamaica Plain wish to announce that their annual book sale is approaching. The book sale will be held the same day as the Jamaica Plain Worlds Fair. It will be held on the steps of the library on 433 Centre Street , September 9, 2007 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm . The library is accepting donations now and we look forward to seeing lots of BTU folks at the sale. This is a very worthy cause, and many of our JP teachers bring their classes there. If you have any books to donate, please do so.

Michael Milmoe, son of Boston teacher, Kathy Milmoe, was 20 years old, playing flag football at the University of Vermont where he is a sophomore, when he suffered a cardiac arrest resulting in neurological damage. While he has made remarkable progress, , the long-term cost of his rehabilitation will be immense.

On September 22, 2007 a Benefit Dance and Auction will be held at Moseley's in Dedham to benefit Michael. The evening will include a silent auction, raffle and light refreshments along with dancing and music provided by Steve Smith and the Nakeds. Tickets are $100.00 per person with all proceeds benefiting Michael Milmoe. Checks should be made payable to "The Milmoe Trust". Tickets may be purchased from the committee members listed below* or by mail see form attached or contact milmoebenefit@gmail.com (All tickets purchased by mail will be held for you at the door on the night of the benefit.)

How: $50 to Unified Student Support, c./o Campbell Resource Center , 1216 Dorchester Ave.