On Tuesday, Mayor Walsh announced $100 million in new revenue for Boston Public Schools. The three-year investment is welcome news for all of our students and educators. We applaud the administration for stepping up and allocating such a significant increase in funding to help create the schools our students deserve.
At our membership meeting last Wednesday, BTU members voted to endorse Senator Elizabeth Warren in the Massachusetts Democratic Presidential Primary. The 2/3 vote required for endorsements at our monthly membership meeting followed an over three-month process that included multiple surveys, polling, and recommendations from both the COPE and Executive Board. Our statewide affiliate, AFT-MA, also endorsed our home town senator with overwhelming support on Saturday and we issued a joint press release yesterday. We’re calling on our members to vote on Tuesday, March 3 and to engage in the presidential election for the primary and beyond. Please contact BTU Political Director Johnny McInnis (jmcinnis@btu.org) to get involved and to join the BTU Electoral Action Team!
We also distributed new contract books to Building Reps at our membership meeting to bring back to schools. If you have extra, unused copies, please bring them back to the union office- as the 6,000 books delivered were all picked up last week. New books are in print and will be available at the next membership meeting on February 12. We apologize if you stopped by and they were no longer available and will let reps know if they arrive before then.
In other news, we have several events coming up, including the Black Lives Matter at School National Week from February 3-7. Please be on the lookout below for ways you can participate to fight for racial justice in education.
If you wish to apply for the Additional Program Area(s) as a permanent teacher, please apply online by January 15. Supplemental materials supporting your applications should reach the Office of Human Capital by mail or in-person by the same deadline.
Lastly, please note the change in dates for the BTU Winter Conference. Please plan to join us from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, February 29 (no longer Feb 8), open to all interested BTU members. The make-up snow day is Saturday, March 7. Learn more and register here.
Have a great week!