#3(2007-08), August 31, 2007

Good morning and have a good Labor Day weekend

We continue to hear from some people in superintendent's schools that 'downtown' * has told their principals that they (the principal) have special authority as an administrative head in a superintendent's school, presumably authority they would not enjoy in a non-superintendent's school. First: They don't have any special authority. Second: No one from 'downtown' will take credit for authoring such misinformation. Perhaps principals believe that if they repeat this misinformation often enough, they will be able to obtain the authority they were UNABLE to win in negotiations. The truth is, superintendent's schools operate under same working conditions as other schools.

We have written in this space numerous times previously about alleged changes in working conditions allowed in superintendent's schools. There is only one change: People in superintendent's schools work an extra hour and get paid proportionately for their time. That's the only change . There is no change in contract language, no loss of grievance rights, no gains in administrative authority, and so on. Anything you might hear to the contrary is incorrect. Why do we keep repeating this?

We got a call from an elementary school the other day and the teacher mentioned that the principal told the staff that 'downtown' allegedly told the principal that as head of a superintendent's school, she could direct that staff get three 60-minute P&Ds, not four 48-minute P&Ds. In other words, the principal said, newly-negotiated contract language allowed the superintendent's school to change their school's format of P&D time. This is not true. No school can change the following contract language unless a staff votes by a 2/3rds super majority to do so. Here's the language (p. 43 b2) that all schools must adhere to:

"All teachers in elementary schools, including specialists and itinerant specialists, will be scheduled for four 48-minute planning periods per week. No teacher shall be scheduled for more than two such periods per day."

All schools must adhere to the above language. Having said that, there has been a provision in the contract for 20 years or so that allows schools to proceed through a waiver process to change many provisions in the contract. The change takes a 2/3rds vote and approval by a school site council, and so on. The entire process is found on page 25 in the blue contract book. If a schools wants to go through that process and obtain a faculty vote, the procedure is valid. But absent that procedure, there can be no change in contract language, whether the school is a superintendent's school or not.

One other note on itinerant service providers in superintendent's schools... All itinerant service providers (SLPs, OTs, PTs, Nurses, Psychologists, and so on) who work in superintendent's schools full time are obligated to work an hour extra each day and get paid for it.

Those itinerant service providers assigned less than full time are not required to work the extra hour. However, a school and an itinerant service provide MAY work out a mutually acceptable schedule and the pay will be proportional. In other words, the extra time for these providers is not mandated, but it is permitted.

Let's say, for example, that an SLP is asked and agrees to work at a superintendent's school two days a week for an extra hour. In this case, he/she will receive a salary increase or a differential equal to 40% of 15.4% of his/her base salary.

( * ) We shortly will announce a contest that will reward the individual who can identify 'downtown.' Downtown appears to control everything from contract language to heat to air conditioning. We have some ideas as to the secret identity of Downtown, but we'll wait until the contest.

Opening of School Events, Paycheck Information

• 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 . What should your first paycheck look like?

All members receive a 3% increase in this paycheck. Teachers receive an additional $600 and paras an additional $300 on February 1, 2008. All moneys accrue to your base salary. Those who work in superintendent's schools will receive an additional 15.4% of their salary for working an extra one hour per day. The 15.4% is retirement-worthy and stays on your base salary as long as you work in a superintendent's school. The funds will appear as a salary differential. Teachers can find their correct salary here , paras here

Further, on your paycheck…..

Many employees are entitled to career awards based on years of service. Career Awards are supposed to be automatic. The first teacher career award is automatic 99% of the time. The rest are now supposed to be, but our advice is to APPLY ANYWAY.

Teachers receive a career award the year after reaching maximum salary, another one after 14 years, 19 years, 24 years, 29 years, 34 years, 39 years, and 44 years. Paras receive theirs after 9 years, 14 years, 19 years, 24 years, and 29 years. If you have reached any of these thresholds and are not getting your correct career award, fill out a PSO-3 form, check off ‘career award,' and send it in to Court St. with a request to pay you for the appropriate career award. If you have any questions, please contact Caren or Mike at the BTU office.

New Contract Items to be Aware of:

New booklets will be out soon. In the meantime, you can access the contract changes here, http://www.btu.org/pdf/JointBPS_BTU.1.pdf and http://www.btu.org/pdf/JointBPS_BTU.2.pdf or the highlights at http://www.btu.org/pdf/BTU.BPS_SummaryFINAL.pdf .

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. Finding for all projects will come out of a negotiated source of $325,000. The Joint BPS/BTU Committee invites all BTU members (not substitutes) to apply for the Professional Leadership Project..... read more . Application download can be found here by scrolling down to the bottom of the page.

Two BTU Red Sox tickets apiece have been awarded to four BTU members:

1.   New teacher, Jasenka Arsic, who was one of the new teachers at the New Teacher Orientation sessions last    week at U. Mass. teaches at Madison Park, and we congratulate her. Jasenka was one of the more than 400  new teachers who filled out an BTU membership application at the Orientation Session.
   
2. Retired teacher, Clare McGowan, who volunteered at the New Teacher Orientation last week. Clare is a  former teacher, coach and building representative. Thank you for your volunteer efforts on our behalf.
   
3. Lehana LaPlaca who pledged the largest donation to Rosie's Place. Thank you, Lehana is a teacher at the O‘Donnell elementary in East Boston . Thank you for your most generous contribution ($260) to Rosie's Place.
   
4. Timilty Teacher Gary Fisher, who volunteered one cold Saturday morning last December for our Supermarket Standout event. We thank Gary for his participation in this event. Altogether 100 people stood at close to 20 supermarkets around the city and leafleted thousands of Boston residents. We drew two other names out of our hat fore these tickets, but both were unavailable: Kathy Mahoney from Brighton High School and Peter Meyer from Madison Park. Thank you to all.

Thank you to all! Enjoy the game. Go Red Sox.

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.

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.

Senate Bill S 1631

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. The hearing room is B2 at 10:30 in the morning. Anyone affected by this bill, please call Patricia Armstrong at 617-288-2000 or email her at parmstro@btu.org .

On Class Size: Class size in all regular education classes at Superintendents' Schools have decreased by two students in every grade level. Violations are grievable 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.

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.

Class Size Grievances for school year 2007-2008:  It is now possible to file your class size grievances on-line.  Go to the BTU website for more information.  You may still complete the traditional form and submit it to Pat Connolly, Vice President by mail or fax (617) 288-0024.

Professional Development Opportunities

Making Data Work for You

Presenters:  Al Bird, Denise Henderson and Kristen Pinto

Looking for Candlepin Bowlers!

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.

Charitable Events

Joel Webb is participating in the Citywide Bike Ride and Festival bicycle fundraiser to support technology for the Boston Public Schools.  Joey is in the Boston Teacher Resident (BTR) program and his mother, Susan, is a BTU member and BPS Physical Therapist.  Joey is doing the 45 mile ride with his father on a BTR team that he created.  They are looking for additional team members and donations.  If you would like to donate click here.  Enter amount and fill out information. 

If you would like to join our team (you don't have to be in the BTR) Go to www.hubonwheels.org Select "Register Now", Select " Featured & Corporate Team Members", Select "Boston Teacher Residency Program (BTR)"  (somehow there are 2 of these teams listed, just select the first one until I get it sorted out), The fee to register is $40, but if you raise over $250 you get it back .  Thank you in advance for all your support!

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.

For more information, please visit www.HubOnWheels.org or contact Nicole Freedman at 617-918-4456/ Nicole.Freedman.bra@cityofboston.gov .

Retirement Party

Retirement Party: Gwendolyn Clark and Cheryl Thompson

When: Monday 9/17, 4-7

Where: Marina Bay

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

Dorchester , Mass. , 02125

RSVP by 9/10

Obituaries

We regret to announce that Carl Goldman, husband of retired teacher Sylvia Goldman, has passed away. Sylvia had headed our Retired Teacher Chapter for many years. Carl was the dear father of Faith R. Hirsch, Hope Goldman, and the late Danny Goldman, as well as the grandfather of Jonathan Sandler. Remembrances may be made to Hadassah Medical Organization, 50 West 58th Street, NY, NY 10019 or to AMIT, 817 Broadway, NY, NY 10003. He will be dearly missed by his family and friends.

We also regret to announce that Norene Mahoney Rolle's mother, Cartha Caroline Otto, died August 18.  Norene has worked as a literacy coach and as a school support specialist. She will be dearly missed by her family and friends. Donations can be made to: Hospice of the Good Shepherd, 2042 Beacon Street , Newton , MA 02468

Richard Stutman
President
Boston Teachers Union
617-288-2000
richardstutman@comcast.net (home)

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