BTU President Jessica Tang looks on as Curley K-8 School library paraprofessional CasSandra Samuel discusses the importance of pay equity at the BTU Hall last Thursday.

Good morning,

As a majority female union, we are always proud to celebrate Women’s History Month! Be sure to save the date of Saturday, March 23 for the revival of our BTU Women’s Rights Committee Brunch where we will be awarding this year’s Glass Ceiling Awards to local Boston leaders.

Solidarity is the wind at our backs, propelling us to brighter horizons together. Last Thursday, more than 150 students, parents, community partners and BTU members came to our hall to support the principles laid out in our 2024-2027 contract proposal.

Our union held a press conference with community partners to outline the main priorities of our proposal, including: High-Quality Buildings and Programs, Inclusion Done Right, Student Well-Being, and fighting for Fair and Equitable Pay.

We’d like to thank Boston Latin School Junior Oriana Dunker, Curley K-8 library paraprofessional CasSandra Samuel, Boston Adult Tech Academy teacher Amrita Dani, former BTU member and current Senior Pastor at the Reservoir Church Steve Watson of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, and Blackstone Elementary parent Simel Rodriguez for speaking in support of this contract. Each speaker offered personal and passionate testimony that explained how the proposals in this package will provide BPS educators the tools they need to fulfill our mission of providing the quality education that all BPS students deserve. For more information, check out samples of the press coverage , a brief summary of the session and a video of the conference.

The level of engagement, solidarity and commitment our members exhibited proves that we have the unity and momentum to achieve our goals. This endeavor is bigger than the BTU; we are not only fighting for our students and city but for equity and respect for all workers.

The more our members are engaged, the more we are able to win! To all the members who attended our first session, we hope to see you back and encourage you to share this form with your colleagues so they can commit to the process of fighting for our rights.

The BPS and BTU teams agreed to meet weekly in order to achieve a mutual goal of an agreement as quickly as possible. The next bargaining session is on March 7th at the Bolling Building from 5 to 8 p.m. Please register in advance if you are able to attend.

We will be posting in-depth summaries of the bargaining session from last Thursday at btu.org/contract-bargaining-updates/ by the end of the day. You can find summaries of our contract priorities and all future bargaining sessions at the same address moving forward.

 

While we are focused on fighting for our students through this contract campaign, we cannot lose sight of other civic duties.

We encourage everyone to head to the polls today for the Presidential Primary. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Voters will have the chance to cast their ballots in the Presidential primary, and state and local political party races. You can find your polling location here: https://www.sec.state.ma.us/WhereDoIVoteMA/.

Please leave room in your calendar for the state primary on September 3rd as well as elections on November 5th.

This election has significant implications for the future of education in this country. Our national organization, AFT recently passed a resolution for a call to action related to this campaign. We will be ramping up our electoral organizing for November soon, and encourage everyone to vote this Tuesday — even if it’s an “undecided” protest vote — your voice matters.

We’d like to wish all of our social workers a Happy Social Workers Appreciation month. Thank you for your essential work in making every one of our schools a supportive and emotionally safe community for our students. Check out the National Association of Social Workers for more details on this year’s theme and for resources on how to support your social worker colleagues!

Finally, We’re standing with our allies at Raise Up Mass. for An Act relative to raise the minimum wage, S.1200 & H.1925 which would raise the minimum wage to $20 by 2027 and index it to inflation in the future. This would raise the wages of almost 1 million workers, and extend the minimum wage’s protections to municipal workers like paraprofessionals and school cafeteria workers who are currently excluded! Email your legislators and urge them to show support for legislation that increases the minimum wage in Massachusetts to $20/hr.

Remember to register to attend our next bargaining session at the Bolling building from 5-8 p.m. on Thursday, March 7th.

 

Last week the Frederick Pilot Middle School hosted a Library Legislative Breakfast where BTU members discussed our contract priorities that support librarians in the district. Pictured from left to right: BTU Political Director Johnny McInnis, school librarian Cheryl Snyder Sameul, school librarian Jane Ichord, state representative John Moran, BTU Vice President Erik Berg, BTU Elementary Field Representative Lea Serena.

BTU Events and Announcements

Mass. Ed Justice Alliance— Education Budget Update: March 5th, 6-7:30pm

Education justice advocates, organizers, caregivers, students, educators, and community members are invited to join for a K-12 education budget update and conversation. MassBudget will share about the State budget, and MEJA and our partners will facilitate smaller breakout discussions connecting the State budget to key local budgets. Please join the discussion and together push for equitable funding for our public schools! Register here!

Retirement Planning Seminar: March 6
There will be a Retirement Planning seminar at the BTU Hall with guests from the Social Security Administration and City Of Boston Health Insurance attending. It is never too early to start planning for retirement. Find more details in this registration form.

Black and Palestinian Solidarity Teach-In: March 16th, 4-7pm BTU Hall
Join the BTU Ethnic Studies Now Committee as we dive into the rich history of Black Palestinian Identity as well as the history and solidarity between the fight for the liberation of Black People and Palestinians alike! We strongly urge you to invite your students to this event! Please register at bit.ly/BTUESNRSVP

Para Led Professional Development: Register by March 20
Professional Development is so important in helping us grow and work more effectively with our students. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity and sign up for one of the four part PD series being offered by your fellow para unit members. It is a great way to learn and collaborate. Please use the link on the flyer to register for one of series.

School Committee Testimony on Inclusive Education: Wednesday March 20th
Join BTU members, families and community partners in testifying on the budgetary and programmatic impact of the current rollout of Inclusion in our schools. Our demands: fully fund BPS inclusion plans so no educator is required to use two or more licenses at the same time and student services are not compromised. Sign up here.

Get to Know Your Contract: Master Contract Deep Dives. March 21, 4:30-6:00pm on Zoom (new date!)
Join us for the final session of our winter workshop series! “Get to Know Your Contract: Master Contract Deep Dives” will cover important things to know to implement and enforce the latest BTU/BPS contract items. Sign up to receive the zoom link: bit.ly/BTUwws24

Paraprofessional/PSRP Regional Conference and Social: Register by March 27

The BTU and AFT-MA is hosting a two-day paraprofessional regional conference on April 5th and 6th. Join us for dinner, musical bingo and karaoke on Friday, April 5th from5:30pm-8:30pm at the Para Social. On Saturday, April 6th from 8:30am to 3:00pm, join us at the Annual Para Conference. Sessions will be around Knowing Your Rights & Enforcing Your Rights, PSRP Bill Of Rights, Tai Chi and more. You can register here.

Save the Date: Family2Family Conference

Join us on Saturday, March 30th for this year’s annual Family2Family Conference! This conference is for parents/caregivers, students, and educators to share and learn from each other, support family engagement, promote family advocacy, and strengthen family and educator collaboration. The free Conference will take place on Saturday, March 30th, from 9:30 am – 3:30 pm, in person at Fenway High School (67 Alleghany St, Boston, MA 02120). Stay tuned for a registration link!

The Teacher Leadership Fund Grant: Applications due April 1st

A feature of our contract, the Teacher Leadership Fund offers grants of up to $15,000 for educator teams who want to work in community to learn about, create, and/or share solutions to improve student learning & well-being. Application Due April 1st (early deadline) or May 2nd (final deadline). For complete information about the program including application and guidelines, see http://www.bit.ly/TLF2024. You can also contact Randyl Wilkerson.

BTU Dependent Scholarship: April 19
Every year the BTU awards roughly 16 scholarships in the amount of $2,000 to high school seniors who are dependents of BTU members. See the application and additional information.

Housing Justice School Conversations
What can you do to support students experiencing homelessness? Sign up here to have BTU Housing Justice Committee members visit your school to talk about resources for students and how BPS can help address the housing crisis.

It’s never to early to start planning for retirement. Register for our event with the link above.

Professional Learning & Development Updates

Each week, we have many new and exciting Professional Learning & Development opportunities to share with you. You can find a full description of each listing on our Professional Learning & Development Updates Page.

• AFT Member Benefit Virtual Workshops
• Degree Completion
• Equitable Biliteracy in SLIFE Learning Site 3.5.24
• Connect & Share: Stations and Studios in the Early Childhood Classrooms, March 6, 5:30-7:00 on Zoom
• Igniting Minds through Innovation & Challenge
• Implementing EL Learning Site March 20th, 9:00 am – 2:30pm
• Wellness While You Work Series: Next Session on March 6th, 4 – 5pm
• UMass Boston’s Instructional Technology Licensure Virtual Open House April 22, 4:30 p.m.

Community News & Events

Climate Change in the City: Place-based Science in Boston Harbor

Join the Stone Living Lab and National Parks of Boston each summer for our Stone Living Lab Summer Teacher Institute! This free, five-day course brings Boston area teachers together to explore Boston Harbor through the lens of climate change, place-based learning, and participatory science. Apply by March 10!

Climate Resilient Schools: Meeting March 12

Do you envision a Massachusetts in which all our schools are vibrant examples of climate resilience? Register for the next Climate Resilient Schools Coalition Organizing Network meeting on March 12 from 4pm-5pm! Each month, we take on a different topic to support teams along the process of introducing and winning climate action resolutions in their school districts.

NEW-New Teacher Retreat, March 16, 9-12:30 PM at the Bolling Building 
Boston Public Schools is hosting a retreat to “rediscover and restore what motivated you to become an educator, and leave renewed and committed to teaching! This is going to be a great event for New Teachers to network, to listen to veterans, pick up new strategies and EXPERIENCE JOY.” Register here.

FREE Summer Middle School Science Program, July1-August 2
The Arnold Arboretum runs a free, science and nature based summer program intended for current 6th and 7th graders from BPS, called Arboretum Young Scientists. We are actively recruiting students who are interested in furthering their learning and growth in science and love being in nature for our 5 week program, July 1 through August 2. The application form can also be found on the AYS (Arboretum) webpage, and it is in both English and Spanish.

 

BTU in the News

Check out some samples of the press coverage of our contract campaign launch from this past Thursday.