Over the weekend, more than 100 of our members convened for our annual BTU Leadership Conference. We heard inspiring words and lessons learned from the West Virginia #55Strong strike, heard from Democratic candidate for governor Jay Gonzalezabout his plans to improve public education K-0 through higher ed, and also heard from interim BPS Superintendent Laura Perille and AFT Massachusetts President Beth Kontos.
At this weekend’s BTU Fall Leadership Conference, our members were inspired by Tega Toney, President of the Fayette (West Virginia) Teachers Union and the #RedForEd and #55Strong movements in her state. Their fight is our fight, and our fight is their fight! #UnionStrong #Solidarity Photo by Erik Berg
Thank you for everyone who was able to make it the conference and participate in all of the weekend’s workshops and activities! Please save the date for our Winter Conference on Saturday, February 9!
Tomorrow, BPS will share initial BuildBPS plans at the School Committee meeting. We will be hosting a BuildBPS Forum for BTU members at the BTU the next day, on Thursday, October 18 from 5:30-7:30 PM. As plans become public, we will be following up with schools that are most affected to hear from our members about your reactions, concerns and ideas.
For the upcoming superintendent search, we have created a member survey to get your input. The survey was created from the initial brainstorm and survey at our membership meeting last week. You can fill out the survey by visiting the member portal at members.btu.org. There will be a forum for the search at the BTU on Tuesday, October 30.
In other quick updates, negotiations continued this week, and we will continue to keep you all posted on developments. We are starting our canned food / basic necessities drive on November 1, and please make sure you register to vote by tomorrow if you haven’t registered yet. Tomorrow is the last day! See more below about how to get involved in the very important elections coming up in November.
Have a great week!