We were excited to greet new BPS teachers at the Teacher Summer Institute in August and welcome them to our union!
We are thrilled that many new members have already gotten involved in our campaigns and want to thank them and both participants and volunteers for making the Institute a great success!
Welcome back to another wonderful school year! We hope everyone had a restful Labor Day and first official day back. We were proud to have a presence at the annual Labor Day breakfast on Monday and appreciated the opportunity to share our story at the BTU (listen to President Tang’s speech).
The event was an annual celebration of the labor movement and the importance of unions in fighting for a better society for all. Teachers unions continue to play an important role, and we are proud that, despite the Janus decision, not a single member has dropped their membership! And we are very happy to welcome over 200 new members who signed up in August!
Unfortunately, out-of-state anti-worker groups, funded by billionaires like Betsy DeVos and the Koch brothers, are continuing their assault on public sector unions. Please be aware of misleading ads or literature and stay informed about who is behind them. We will continue to stand united and stronger together.
While our contract expired last Friday, our regularly-scheduled negotiating sessions over the summer will continue through the fall. We will continue to keep you posted about any significant new developments and will give updates at every monthly membership meeting, which are held on the second Wednesday of each month.
The first meeting of the school year will be Wednesday, September 12 at 4:30 PM. We will be joined by Interim Superintendent Laura Perille at this meeting. Please sign up here if you need childcare, and please remember to bring your membership card for easy entry! Everyone should have received cards in the mail. If you did not receive one, please call the office at 617-288-2000 and make sure that your membership is active atmembers.btu.org.
Our 5th annual Back to School Fair will take place on Saturday, September 22 at the BTU from 1-3 PM. We will give out over 40,000 free K-12 books, and we need your help to bring these books to our educators and Boston public school families! Please sign up for Firstbook at firstbook.org/aft to receive free and discounted books throughout the school year as well. Flyers are available in seven languages, and we are looking for volunteers to sort books September 20, 21 and 22. Please sign up here to volunteer or contact Brenda Chaney at bchaney@btu.org.
Lastly, congratulations to all of the public education candidates who won their primary elections last night! We’re thrilled to report that all of the BTU-endorsed candidates won. Thank you to everyone who voted and volunteered on campaigns!
As of this issue, we are resuming our weekly bulletins. You can look for a new issue in your inbox each Tuesday morning (or Wednesday when Monday is a holiday).
Have a wonderful start to the school year. We are so excited to see you soon!