Welcome back! May we all have a happy and healthy 2015.
The children’s party was terrific. Thank you all who volunteered to help and to the 400 attendees. The kids had a blast! And many, many thanks to our teacher, para, and nurse volunteers.
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Hundreds attended our annual children’s party and had a blast.
Photo by Mike Maguire
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A couple of quick announcements:
- The New Educator Underground Event is this Friday at the Blarney Stone from 4-7 PM. See our flyer for details. These have turned into great events. Check it out.
- The Early Termination Incentive is out.
- Red Sox tickets will be in the office in late January for pickup.
- We still have a few Celtics tickets left.
- The deadline for enrolling in no-cost courses for RETELL is January 15; Find out all you need to know.
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As you all know we reached a tentative agreement on a proposal to extend the school day in Boston for approximately 60 schools. Approximately 20 schools will begin this September; the rest will be spread out over the next two years. The ratification meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 14, at 4:15. A revised, more detailed Q & A can be found here. The actual tentative agreement can be found here.
We have prepared a graph and a chart for informational purposes.
The graph below shows the improvement in compensation between the current negotiated proposal and the prior proposal from September 2012. It also shows how other groupings of schools that have extended days get compensated.
The chart shows a comparison between the last offer made under the previous school/city administration and the current negotiated settlement. The previous offer to extend the school day came in September 2012 during the last contract settlement.
This Thursday, January 8, at 4:15, there will be a Q & A session with the BTU to go over the ins and outs of the proposed settlement agreement. Please join us at the BTU.
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Terms and Conditions
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Unaccepted Offer, September 2012 | Tentative Agreement, December 2014 |
| Amount of Time | 45 minutes | 40 minutes |
| Faculty input into how time would be implemented | None | Faculty, School Site Council & the principal shall plan it |
| Facilitation of planning time | None | Teacher chosen by personnel subcommittee of school shall facilitate team planning session of P & D for 40 minutes per week. Teacher/facilitator gets stipend of $1,000. |
| How many teacher-facilitators will be hired? | Not applicable | Roughly 400, or one for every five teachers, citywide, in affected schools, each at $1,000 per year |
| Purpose of added learning time | Unclear | To provide exposure to a variety of academic and often-overlooked areas, such as drama, arts, music, and foreign languages |
| Guaranteed weekly planning time for implementation | None | 40 minutes of teacher-directed P&D per week |
| Additional P & D time | None | Another 35 minutes of teacher-directed P&D time per week |
| What if added P&D time is lost? | Not applicable | $28 per session payment to teacher |
| Amount of extended time | 45 minutes per day | 40 minutes |
| Compensation | $16.67/hour | $37.20/hour |
| Retirement-worthy | Not guaranteed | Guaranteed |
| Severance worthy | Not guaranteed | Guaranteed |
| What happens if an ELT school is forced to change status (to Turnaround or Level 5) and the new status brings with it lower compensation? | The lower compensation is enacted. | The higher compensation is retained |
| Supply budget for implementation | None | $200 per member, per year |
| Is this a one-size-fits-all program? | Yes, it was a top-down proposal that would have had no input from faculty. This was a major reason for our rejection last time. | No, individual schools decide how the ELT time will be structured. There is a seven-member joint committee that oversees implementation, composed of three teachers, three administrators, and one jointly chosen. |
| To accommodate after-school PD, can the 18 hours be changed from the 2-hour mandate, w/the schedule controlled by adm? | No, there was no allowance to change it | Yes, the 18-hr. schedule now needs to be approved by staff; one-hour and before-school scheduling can be approved. |
| What was the negotiating team’s position on the offer | Unanimously oppose | Unanimously in support. |