Good day.
Late yesterday, the school district sent out close to 600 ‘excess’ notices to staff. The notices ought to be delivered sometime today through the US mail. Most of the notices had been expected, though the entire process is uncomfortable and unwelcome to our staff.
The notices have resulted from a variety of sources: school closings; special ed program moves; the proposed abolition of ETFs; Turnaround and Pilot school excessings; and lastly, normal and typical yearly programmatic changes. The high number of school closings and special ed changes/moves have driven up the number of excess staff.
While this entire process is unpleasant, it is important to keep in mind the following – those were excessed are guaranteed placement at the excess pool. Further, those who are excessed are entitled to bid on other positions through a variety of different assignment processes, each of which will be spelled out as they occur. For now, please rest assured that all people who receive today’s notice are guaranteed placement next year through the excess process. The actual excess process takes place in early May. The transfer process, which is also available (and encouraged) to all excessed candidates, will begin Monday.
We encourage all candidates to take advantage of the transfer process.
Any questions on any of the above, please call the BTU office at 617-288-2000 or e-mail the appropriate field representative, Caren or Michael. Any schools that have entire populations of staff were excessed (e.g., schools that were closed) are invited to call the BTU office to arrange for one of our staff or officers to visit your school to explain all of the above processes.
Thank you. These are difficult times. And a confluence of unfortunate situations have artificially inflated the difficulties. On the ETF issue, we have filed a charge at the MA labor commission, and that charge will be heard in early April. We also have filed a charge that may affect some of the excessing in turnaround and pilot schools. That charge, too, is scheduled to be heard at a later date.
Please call the office if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Richard Stutman
President
Boston Teachers Union
rstutman@btu.org
617-288-2000