| Dear member,
The BTU monthly membership meeting will be tomorrow, January 14 at 4:30 PM at the BTU Hall. The BTU is partnering with Star Market to offer a vaccine clinic offering free vaccines to members before, during and after the meeting, from 3-7PM. Walk-ins are welcome but you can also reserve a slot ahead of time. There will be 7 vaccines available: Covid-19, Flu, RSV, Hepatitis B, Pneumococcal, Shingles, and Tetanus. We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow.
District Budget Cuts and Staffing Impacts
We are aware that many schools recently received their preliminary staffing levels for the upcoming school year, and we are told that in many cases, they included significant cuts to positions. The BTU has been advocating strongly at the district, City and state levels for funding to ameliorate the budget and staff cuts that have been proposed. Now is the time to invest in our schools and our students, not to shortchange them. As the budget situation becomes clearer, we will work with affected school communities to raise up their voices and advocate and agitate for the staffing levels that meet the needs of our schools.
Staff Safety Amid Immigration Enforcement
The footage which shows an ICE agent shooting Renee Good on January 7th in Minneapolis, and the ensuing attempt to demonize her as a “domestic terrorist”, has been horrifying to witness. The Trump Administration–through policy, rhetoric and physical violence–is actively terrorizing immigrant communities. Our members see the impacts every single day in the classroom and we commend every BPS staff member for supporting their students and families during this time.
The killing of Renee Good was not the only incident to occur in Minneapolis on January 7th. Hours after the shooting in an unrelated incident, a person being pursued by Custom and Border Patrol agents crashed their car outside Roosevelt High School just as students were being dismissed. Local news outlets report that the CBP agents reacted aggressively when staff members asked the agents to leave school property. According to eyewitness accounts, agents tackled students to the ground, deployed pepper spray and tear gas into the crowd, and put at least two teachers in handcuffs. In response, the district closed schools for the remainder of the week. The New York Times also released a video Sunday.
AFT President Randi Weingarten released a statement supporting our fellow AFT members in Minneapolis and you can express your own support for Education Minnesota by signing its petition. AFT is also a plaintiff in a nationwide lawsuit arguing the Department of Homeland Security violated multiple laws and the First Amendment when it ended a policy which barred ICE agents from trying to detain people at sensitive locations such as schools, churches and courthouses.
We stand in solidarity with the educators at Roosevelt High, they demonstrated remarkable bravery by putting themselves in harm’s way to protect their students. It is a disgrace that educators, including our own members, are being forced to act as a protective barrier for students in schools across the country.
The safety of our students and members is paramount. With that in mind, we would like to once again share some resources provided by the district detailing best practices if immigration officers appear at school buildings. Remain calm, stick together, and stay safe.
BPS Unilaterally Adopts New Observation Tool for Evaluation
Many members have informed us that BPS has begun to encourage or require evaluators in several regions to use the Equitable Literacy aligned look-for tool when conducting observations for evaluation of teachers. Some members have reportedly been told that all evaluation observations will require use of this form as early as next school year. The district has also added a series of check-boxes aligned with the Equitable Literacy framework into the Vector evaluation platform itself.
In previous years, the district has used observation rubrics other than the contractually negotiated teaching rubric for non-evaluative purposes (e.g. CRIOP, CLASS, and this EQL tool), but this is the first time that we have been made aware of a district-wide push to require use of an alternate observation tool for evaluative purposes.
In December, the BTU sent a cease and desist letter to BPS demanding that they stop using the EQL tool for evaluative purposes and negotiate with the BTU about any planned changes to the evaluation process. In a follow up meeting, BPS insisted that changing the observation tool was a management right and did not require negotiation, a point on which the BTU vehemently disagrees.
If the Equitable Literacy Look-for tool is being used in your school for evaluative purposes, please contact Lea Serena at lserena@btu.org. In particular, we are interested in any instances where the notes or graphic organizer from the tool have been shared with educators as the observation write-up in vector.
The BTU does not currently have a position on the quality or effectiveness of this observation tool as compared to the DESE Rubric we have always used, but we insist that any changes to the evaluation process be negotiated with us in accordance with state law. We have filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge and will make sure to communicate any updates.
Important Upcoming Dates:
January 15th, 2026, is the deadline for teachers to submit an application for an Additional Program Area. Teachers can receive an APA designation if they are DESE licensed, and have taken the appropriate steps listed in Superintendent’s Circular HRS-HS07.1. Teachers can apply for an Additional/Alternate Program Area (APA) at the link provided in the above Superintendent’s Circular where they can submit an application and documentation proving they have satisfied the requirements.
Paraprofessionals who want to request reassignment to another school must submit the reassignment request by Feb. 1st. The request form can be found in Attachment #1 in the Superintendent Circular # HRS-HS07. Paras have until Feb. 14th to rescind this decision. Due to backlogs at USPS, it is suggested that the form is scanned and emailed to ohr@bostonpublicschools.org. Otherwise please contact Colleen Hart for the google form to submit virtually. It is also in the staffing circular HRS-HS07.
Permanent teachers have until Feb. 1st to excess themselves. Teachers at autonomous schools must be notified by Feb. 1st if they will be excessed.
You can find a comprehensive breakdown of the Excess process in the FAQ documents compiled by BTU staff for Teachers and Paraprofessionals. They are also posted on the FAQ page of our website.
If you are a paraprofessional who is encountering challenges in your role and would like to connect with a para mentor, please email your field rep Colleen Hart(chart@btu.org)
Probable Org Notification Dates & Deadlines – Jan. 29th – April 15th
Please make sure to review the Probable Org Notification Dates & Deadlines listed in this memo which was shared by OHR on January 6th.
Formative Assessments Due February 1st
Reminder: Mid-Year Formative Assessments for educators on 1-year plans are due Feb 1, 2026, with formative artifacts due two weeks prior on Jan 18, 2026. See details in this memo. |
