Good day.
On Health Insurance…right to bargain diminished
The Massachusetts House last week voted overwhelmingly to to take away our right to collectively bargain health insurance coverage.
However, the BTU and other city unions have agreed to a health insurance plan that we believe will not be overturned by the new health law that has been approved by the House.
Our proposed agreement will last through June, 2015, at which point whatever new state health law is in effect will reign supreme. Our proposed agreement is expected to be approved by the Boston City Council this Wednesday, and we will sign officially on Thursday.
We thank in advance the members of the Boston City Council for their belief that well-intended collective bargaining is the preferred method of reaching an agreement that is mutually beneficial to all parties. We appreciate their support.
Democrats Seek Support from Unions, but Reciprocity Lacking
The anti-collective bargaining bill endorsed by the heavily-Democratic Massachusetts House last week has made national news. The New York Times reported on Saturday that:
“union leaders in this traditionally labor-friendly state are fuming over a plan passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives this week to curtail bargaining rights for municipal workers, a highly unusual move by Democratic lawmakers.”
The Sunday Globe followed up in the same vein.
Our routine support for Democratic lawmakers that is taken for granted by the Democratic Party is long overdue for review. Along these lines, read what the national firefighters union is doing to hold Democrats accountable. They are suspending “all contributions to federal candidates out of frustration with Congressional Democrats who, union officials say, have not fought harder against budget cuts and anti-union legislation.”
How did your state rep vote on the bill to strip away our collective bargaining rights? See here.
The bill is now going to the Senate, where it is expected to be taken up over the next few weeks. After the Senate weighs in, their version and the House version are batted around and a joint version goes forward. We will of course keep you posted.
In the meantime, we ask that you call your state senator and ask that our collective bargaining rights be protected. If you don’t know who your state senator is, see here.
City Plan Explained
The Boston city plan contains on immediate change, a 1.25% increase as of July 1.
The next change, the elimination of BCBS Master Medical, takes effect on January 1, 2012. Only retirees are currently eligible for that plan. A very good replacement plan, Blue Care Elect Preferred, is available to retirees, as will be the current BCBS Master Medical carve-outs.
In the fall, as we get closer to January 1, the BTU will hold seminars on the new plan, and we will give retirees ample information and lead time to make a decision. Read the entire new city plan here.
Important late announcements:
Madison Park HS is having its retirement party this Friday, May 6.
Read details below.
A benefit for Lisa Osborne-Kelley, who recently passed away will be held on 5/13. Please see announcement under obituaries.
Charter Compact: City Saves Face; Charters Get Buildings
The BPS and the charter school association signed an agreement last week to much fanfare. The agreement is more fluff than substance. Pure fluff. In essence, the charters promise to serve all types of students and the city agrees to lease or rent former school buildings, such as the Agassiz, the newly-renovated Hyde Park High School, and the Fifield, to the charter school association, which is in desperate need of space.
Here’s an official, verbatim, excerpted summary of the compact:
The Boston Alliance of Charter Schools commit to:
- Serve all types of students in the City of Boston
- Support the location of new charter schools in the neighborhoods with greatest need,
- Minimize transportation costs to the Boston Public Schools
- Share best practices and promising innovations with the Boston Public Schools.
The Boston Public Schools commit to:
- Respect and protect the autonomies of all public charter schools in the City
- Notify charters when there will be changes to grade configurations or types of schools offered in a particular neighborhood.
- Explore leasing vacant or under-utilized district buildings to charter schools
- Explore opportunities to offer charter schools access to bulk purchasing.
- Investigate the possibility of establishing contracts for the district to serve particular special needs populations on behalf of charter schools, and explore methods of helping charter schools recruit English Language Learners and students with varied special needs.
- Share with the Boston Alliance institutional data regarding student demographics
- Share best practices and promising innovations with charter schools.
Three points are worth noting:
- The charter commitment to serving all types of students (#1 top) is vague and meaningless. There’s no ‘beef’ in the agreement.
- The city’s commitment (#5 bottom) to contract with charters to teach select SPED students that the charters want to avoid is, well, typical and shameful. If charters take public funds, they should educate all children–not just the select few they want.
- The only real change in the status quo, is #3 bottom: real estate. The city giveth and the charters taketh away.
BTU Union News and Events
Teacher Mock Pool
The teacher mock pool will be held on 5/9 from 4:00- 6:00 PM, at the BTU.
Para Pool June 3; Para transfer list out 4/25
The Para pool is slated to be held on June 3, and the Para Transfer list is slated to be released on April 25. Any questions, please call the BTU office.
Candidates for BTU Elective Office
Anyone running for BTU office is able to purchase address labels for BTU members if he/she wants to contact members by mail. He/she can also purchase building representative labels.
See a list of candidates for the June ballot here.
Education in the News
Some at Harvard Ed School Seek New Direction for School
Boston.com reports:
“More than 50 doctoral students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education are demanding that the 91-year-old school redirect its mission. Over the last decade, they say, it has veered away from social justice issues in education toward more results-driven management and policy concerns. The students, who are groomed to be national leaders in education, said they fear the shift will hamper their professional development and tarnish the school’s reputation.”
Ravitch: Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching
Read more or listen to an interview on NPR.
The Limits of School Reform
An Op-Ed columnist in the NY Times writes:
“Going back to the famous Coleman report in the 1960s, social scientists have contended – and unquestionably proved – that students’ socioeconomic backgrounds vastly outweigh what goes on in the school as factors in determining how much they learn. Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute lists dozens of reasons why this is so, from the more frequent illness and stress poor students suffer, to the fact that they don’t hear the large vocabularies that middle-class children hear at home.”
Career Opportunities: Information Sessions for Summer Pathway Programs; BoomWriter
Summer Pathways, ESL and SPED
BPS staff members interested in applying for the ESL Pathway Program are urged to attend ONE of the following information sessions: 5/3, 5/11, 5/16. All sessions 2:30 to 3:30PM or 4-5PM.
BPS staff members interested in applying for the Moderate Disabilities Pathway Program are urged to attend ONE of the following information sessions: 5/2, 5/12, 5/17. All sessions 2:30-3:30PM or 4-5PM.
Registration required on My Learning Plan.
The Pathways are intensive, 90-hour programs of professional development conducted by the BPS Office of Human Resources which prepare participants for ESL and Moderate Disabilities licensure by the MA DESE and for teaching ESL to English Language Learning students and for teaching students with special needs.
Questions? 617-635-9036 or email here.
BoomWriter Workshop
Due to the success of the first workshop, another free BoomWriter Educator Training Workshop will take place Thursday, May 19 from 6pm-8pm in the beautiful Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge, and is open to any Grade 5-12 educator.
BoomWriter is a web-based, interactive writing competition where students read a first chapter created by a professional author or the teacher, create and submit their own Chapter 2, then vote on the winning entry. The competition continues for as many chapters as the teacher chooses, and the end product is a complete, collaborative book… and supercharged literacy skills!
BoomWriter is now being piloted in several schools throughout the country, and WGBH recently reported: “BoomWriter is inspiring young writers.” The workshop will feature refreshments and prizes, and attendees will receive free membership to BoomWriter for their school.
REGISTER NOW. For questions, please contact Lillie Marshall.
Message from Arne Duncan: You’ve Got a Friend
What could be more touching and moving than an open letter to teachers from Education Secretary Duncan in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week.
“I have worked in education for much of my life. I have met with thousands of teachers in great schools and struggling schools, in big cities and small towns, and I have a deep and genuine appreciation for the work you do. I know that most teachers did not enter the profession for the money. You became teachers to make a difference in the lives of children, and for the hard work you do each day, you deserve to be respected, valued, and supported…”
Read more.Feel free to listen to James Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend” while reading Duncan’s letter. You will undoubtedly find Taylor’s version more moving, more real, and more sincere.
Upcoming Events
Building a Social Justice Education Movement: A free conference for educators, students, and activists
Saturday May 21, 10am-5pm
Curley School, 493 Centre St, Jamaica Plain.
Join teachers, K-12 students, graduate students, educators and education activists to discuss issues facing our schools and communities, and to share techniques & curricula that address social justice issues in and beyond our classrooms.
Register here or email.
BTU and Its Members in the Community
Haitian Relief Effort Seeks School Supplies
Date: May 14, 2011
Time: 10AM-3PM
Where: Boston Teachers Union
In need of: School supplies and children’s clothing (backpacks, pencils, pens, notebooks, loose leaf paper, pocket folders, rulers, pencil sharpener, erasers, colored pencils, crayons, markers, construction paper, protractors, compasses, glue, math manipulatives, alphabet/phonics/math flashcards etc.)
While you are there, you can enjoy either:
* A massage with our therapist “Florentin Alvarado” ($5)
* Learn a few dance steps with our dancer “Kristina Simopoulos” from Paula Terenzi’s Dance Complex in Malden ($5)
* Participate in a 50-50 raffle ($2 per ticket or $5 for 3 tickets, which will cover the shipping cost for the items collected.
Retirement and End-of-Year Parties
Madison Park Retirement: Friday, 4/6/2011
Neighborhood Club, 27 Glendale Rd., Quincy
Edward Becker, Virginia Donnelly, Jody Haley, Kenneth Johnson, Ed Lawrence, Gary Lucas, Patricia Mullane, James O’Brien, Susan O’Brien, Barbara O’Garra, Grace Quigua, Andrea Rinella, Manuel Rodrigues, Robert Sullivan
Call 617-635-8970 x 216 or email ekelly, pmelanson or slambert
End of the Yeare Agassiz Farewell
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
6:00 to 11:00 p.m.
The Neighborhood Club in Quincy
Cocktail Hour, Appetizers, Dinner, Piano Bar, Jazz, Dance
RSVP by May 30th
Cost: $60.00 (choose chicken or shrimp)
Please contact Ms. Candida Mundo-Arboleda or call our office and ask for Mayra or Yoralba at 617-635-8198
Retirement Party for the Irving’s Demetri Hanzis and Sharon Maalouf
Thursday, June 23, 2011
6pm – 10pm
Four Points by Sheraton, 1125 Boston-Providence Turnpike, Norwood
Cost per person: $55 (includes hors d”oeuvres, dinner, DJ, and gifts)
Payments can be made by check. Please mail checks and make payable to: Linda Moran, 36 Oakmere St., West Roxbury, MA 0213
Retirement Party for Rosa Bodden and Karen Silipigno
June 16, 2011
6:00 P.M.to 11:00 P.M
Quincy Marriott
$60.00 per person includes gift
Make checks payable to: Donalee Dixon, 3 Kovey Road, Hyde Park MA 02131
A Retirement Party for Betty Killgoar & Deb Wright
Friday, June 10, 2011
6pm until 10pm
Florian Hall, 55 Hallet Street, Dorchester, MA 02124
Cost per person: $50 (includes gifts, meal, and DJ)
Payments may be made by check.
Mail checks to: Joseph Lee School, Attn: Sara Smith
155 Talbot Avenue, Dorchester, MA 02124
Make checks payable to ‘Joseph Lee Sunshine Fund’ by 5/27
Obituaries
The BTU regrets to inform all that Lisa Osborn-Kelley, a paraprofessional at the Holland School, passed away on Monday, April 25, 2011. Lisa was a member of the Paraprofessional Council and also an appointed trustee of the Paraprofessional Health & Welfare Board. Through the AFT she was a trained instructor to run workshops to help paras get their Paraprofessional Training Points in order to satisfy the requirements of the “No Child Left Behind Act.”
Any paraprofessional who attended the Paraprofessional Statewide Conference on April 9th had the privilege of seeing Lisa in action. Lisa, at the opening of our conference, took the microphone and sang a lively song to invite all paras to join her in a workshop at the Holland School. Lisa will long be remembered for her shining smile, happy attitude, and outgoing personality. The BTU sends its most sincere condolences to Lisa’s family, friends, and colleagues.
Condolence cards can be sent to Lisa’s mother: Lucille Osborn, 12 Thetford Avenue, Dorchester, MA 02124.
There will be a benefit in honor of Lisa at the BTU Lounge on Friday, 5/13, at 6:00 PM. Refreshments will be served. Tickets can be purchased at the Holland School or at the BTU office for $15.00.
The BTU also regrets to inform all that Michele Bynoe, a retired teacher from the E Greenwood School passed away recently. Michele taught at the Hennigan and then the Greenwood, where she taught fifth grade, where she was a committed, respected, and dedicated teacher. She was also a BTU union representative for many years before retiring after 32 years of service to the Boston Public Schools. In her obituary, her family wrote the following: “Michele, a very private person, had a heart of Gold and would give off into countless charities and those in need without expecting anything in return. She will be dearly missed.” The BTU adds its most sincere condolences to Michele’s family, friends and colleagues. She will be dearly missed.
Note on obituaries: the BTU attempts to print all obituaries as we learn of them. Please notify us when there is an obituary you wish us to mention. Please do not assume we already know of it. Thank you.
The BTU Online
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Sincerely,
Richard Stutman
President
Boston Teachers Union
rstutman@btu.org
617-288-2000