Dear member,
We wish we could have ended Labor Day with an agreement with the district before everyone reported tomorrow. The BTU negotiating team worked through the long weekend — through Friday evening, all day Saturday, Sunday, and all day today to do our best to negotiate a more sensible, thoughtful, safe, and equitable plan for the district.
Unfortunately, despite significant progress, the district remains unwilling to ensure that buildings are safe with a mutually agreed upon facilities checklist and are unwilling to ensure a remote work option, even temporarily, to high-risk educators. We will continue to advocate, negotiate, and do everything we can to ensure the district has a better plan for students, educators, and our communities, but we will need all hands on deck. Your building reps will be in touch with the latest information on our next steps.
Please know that we have heard everyone’s concerns and questions, and we are very aware of the anxiety surrounding the start of the school year. We wish the district had met to plan with us and negotiate much earlier this summer as we had asked them to do. In the interim, we hope to “see” you at our membership meeting this Wednesday (you must register in advance before 4:00 p.m. Wednesday), where we will share the latest developments as we continue to meet with the district and negotiate an MOU that our students and educators deserve.
We are still hopeful that educators will be able to work remotely next week and through October 1. We also remain hopeful that we can come to an agreement on working remotely Wednesdays. Lastly, we hope to create schedules and find creative solutions to ensure our educators in high-risk categories can continue to deliver high-quality instruction and services to students while ensuring they and their families remain safe. We expect to meet with the district again tomorrow.
There will be an Executive Board meeting tomorrow night and we will have our regular bulletin Wednesday morning. Remember, no BTU bargaining unit members are required to report to school buildings this week. Please also see the important information below regarding this week’s professional development schedule.
Professional Development Updates:
- Scheduling for Professional Development Days 9/10 – 9/18
All educators will participate in PD from 9/8 – 9/18. Tuesday and Wednesday (9/8 & 9/9) will be six-hour days, inclusive of 30-minute lunch. We are continuing to work with BPS on identifying classroom setup time. The remaining days will follow existing contractual workday requirements including daily and weekly P&D time and duty-free lunches. Educators SHOULD NOT be scheduled wall-to-wall for full days of new professional development content during this time. You should have plenty of self-directed and team time protected in your schedule to ensure you can apply your learning, and do your planning so that you are ready for the first day of remote learning on 9/21. If you need assistance with planning your PD time, please contact Paul. - September 8 and 9 are Six Hour Days as Usual
Tuesday and Wednesday, September 8 and 9 are six-hour professional development days. We continue to negotiate with BPS to identify when the usual classroom setup (physical or virtual) will take place. The 30-minute union meeting should continue to be held on the morning of Wednesday, 9/9. - Note on Professional Development Sessions
BPS is making a wide variety of mandatory and optional sessions available online, synchronously, and asynchronous over the next two weeks. Please work with your principal to ensure that you are attending those sessions which are mandatory and those which make the most sense for your practice. For example, if you already know the basics of google classroom, you may want to choose a session more relevant to you in consultation with your principal. - WIDA Professional Development Update
Many educators are being asked to complete the WIDA 15-hour, self-paced Language Objectives, and Differentiation PD. Educators must be afforded contractual time to complete this PD. If contractual time is not provided and you are required to complete it, you may do so on your own time and be compensated at your real pro-rata rate.