We hope you have had a restful, relaxing Memorial Day.

A delayed start-up of school at the  Hennigan/ELC West last fall has necessitated under state law that students are 'owed' 12 additional hours of school instruction before the end of this school year. But

Hennigan Staff Celebrates Opening of New Library, in Nov., 2011

here's the rub: department officials waited until yesterday afternoon--almost nine months--to make a verbal proposal on how to extend the school year. This procrastination has dismayed everyone--staff, students, and parents--as the end of the school year rapidly approaches. Any such change in staff/school schedule requires negotiations with each union affected.


In the summer of 2011 the Hennigan/ELC West was slated to be painted, but as the toxic compound, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), was found in the existing paint, a decision was made to delay the repainting until the building could be cleared of the summer school program. This delay caused a further delay in the repainting and cleanup of the building, which houses more than 600 children between the two schools. Staff worked hundreds of hours in late August--many people worked multiple days--trying to get the school ready for a September opening, but this effort still wasn't enough, and the start of school had to be delayed for one week.


While many students missed 12 hours of instruction that first week, staff worked on- and off-site feverishly during that time and through the weekend to get the school ready. Just about all staff worked Saturday and many more worked Sunday of the next weekend to get both facilities ready for a delayed Monday start. School opened on September 12, 2011, and the department has had since that date to prepare for the possibility of June make-up time. And that brings us to yesterday afternoon's proposal.


Somewhere between September 12 and April 27 the school department realized that the 12 hours' time lost to instruction had to be made up. Various scenarios to make up the time have been proposed by one or both of the school principals, and all parties had been waiting until yesterday for the Central Office's response. 

So why do we bring the story of the Hennigan/ELC West up? Regrettably the department's inability to make a decision in a timely manner is a story too often reported. And it's a story with harmful consequences. What makes the issue at hand particularly infuriating is the loss of 12 hours' instructional time will be made up, one way or another, at the end of the school year after the close of the term and when summer recess is in the air. As someone appropriately said in an email to me, "students needed those hours months ago."



We have watched this same inability-to-make-a-decision play out in contract negotiations, in the SPED reorganization, and in the failure to provide adequate services to ELL students. Each of these three botched events has led to litigation from a variety of plaintiffs.

Now we see the same scenario playing out in deliberations on the student assignment process and the school closing/redeployment issue. One has to wonder: If the department cannot bring to conclusion a simple 12-hour schedule for two schools, then how on earth can it do justice to the larger picture? The answer: it probably cannot.

Meanwhile we await the outcome of the end-of-year drama at the Hennigan-ELC/West, and here's where we stand. The school department ought to send us a written proposal--even if nine months late--on what it hopes to do in this matter. Some matters can be delayed, but as a general rule, time doesn't stand still. June is coming up quickly whether the department is ready or not.


New Membership Applications Need to be Collected

Thank you for your responses so far. We are making good progress. Please keep the new applications coming in. Thank you again! 

 All Souls Author Draws Crowd

All Souls author, Michael Patrick MacDonald, spoke last week to a BTU audience of teachers and students. Abut 100 people heard Mr. MacDonald speak and answer questions about his books.To say he was terrific would be an understatement. People stayed well beyond an hour to get an autographed copy of All Souls, and Mr. MacDonald was most gracious with his time. It was terrific to see BPS students in the audience as participants. 

We thank a few people for putting this together. Both Colum Whyte and Michael McLaughlin put this together, and we thank both very much for their help.

There was no particular moment when Harris Lirtzman decided to blow the whistle, and so close the door on his teaching career.

 

A former deputy state comptroller, he had decided to give public school teaching a midcareer whirl. In 2009, he landed a job as a special education math teacher at the Gautier Institute for Law and Public Policy, a Bronx high school.

Read more.

Click here (PDF) for more information.

 

Connecting Health and Academics: A Community Conversation and Health Fair on June 16
Boston school nurses will gather at the Mildred Avenue School in Mattapan in collaboration with BPS and the Boston Haiti Health Support Team to connect health services and academics in a joint effort on Saturday, June 16 from 10-2. The event is called "Nurses in Your Corner." See a flier here.

Taking it to the Streets to Win! Building Mobilization Capacity in our Unions
Date: 06/11/2012
Time: 5:30pm - 8:30pm
Location: Florian Hall
Address:  55 Hallet Street ~ Dorchester, MA
 
A FREE workshop workshop for all union members

Learn how to mobilize and create a mobilization structure in your union, gain quick transferable skills that you can use in your own local union, and build a network across union lines to help share existing resources.More info here.

Tremont Credit Union is seeking members who wish to participate in a focus group designed to let Tremont know what it does well and what it could do better. Interested members please contact here.

Lombardo's, 6 Billings Street in Randolph

 

Thursday, June 7, 6 until 11PM
Cost per person: $50 (includes gift, meal, and DJ). Please make checks payable to "Joseph Lee Sunshine Fund" and mail to: Joseph Lee School, Attn: Sara Smith, 155 Talbot Avenue, Dorchester, MA 02124. Please RSVP by May 17. See flier here.

 

Friday, June 15 at 4 PM
Winthrop Arms Hotel at 130 Grovers Avenue in Winthrop

$30 includes dinner & gift. Cash or check payable to the O'Donnell School. Please RSVP by June 1 to Barbara Grato at 617-635-8454.

June 9 at 1:30 PM
Maggiano's Little Italy, 4 Columbus Avenue in Boston
$60 per person includes appetizers, lunch, dessert and gifts for the retirees. Cash bar and discounted parking will be available.

Please make checks payable to "JoAnn Brown-Henderson Retirement" and submit to JoAnn Brown, Henderson School, 1669 Dorchester Avenue, Dorchester, MA 02125 no later than May 9.

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