Brookline Educators Union

  • About the BEU
    • Officers
    • Executive Board
    • Building Representative Council
    • Professional Rights Committee
    • MTA
    • NEA
  • Contact
  • BEU Newsletter
  • Documents
    • Contracts
    • MTA Membership Application
  • FAQ

Lawrence Educators Statement in Support of Schools Our Students Deserve

September 11, 2021

September 11, 2021

 

We, the BEU aligned staff of Lawrence School, are united in our commitment to ensuring that our students receive excellent instruction and services that are delivered under the safest, healthiest conditions possible.  We stand behind our Covid-specific negotiations team that initiated the bargaining process on August 15 and were disappointed when the School Committee did not appear on the date they chose, August 25.  Our negotiating team tells us that when they did meet on August 31, the school committee did not agree to safety protocols and benefits that are reasonable and fair. These include visitor protocols, minimizing unnecessary concentrations of people indoors, social distancing guidelines for unmasked times, a fair vaccination process, ventilation standards, and Covid sick time provisions. While other districts have already accepted such proposals, we were told we would have to wait until September 17 to revisit what our school committee rejected.  With a month wasted, during which health and safety conditions could have been put in place, we are saddened but not surprised that Covid has resulted in the mass quarantine of a class of students. We call on the school committee to agree immediately to learning conditions that are safer and higher quality than this.    

 

Unprepared for what could have been predicted, and without a plan in place for quarantined students and teachers, the district turned to colleagues of ours on Sept. 8 with the expectation that they would spend hours and hours scrambling to design and deliver remote instruction. That is not the quality education we have agreed to deliver.  We expect we will not be put in this position again.  We want the buildings safe and therefore open for teaching and learning in-person.  We stand together in our insistence that the school committee negotiate a fair Covid agreement with strong health and safety provisions, and then go to the main table without delay to negotiate staffing and compensation that are needed to provide our students with the education they deserve. 

 

Signed:

 

Jonathan Norwood

Joanna Lieberman

Rachel Keegan-McGlinn

Jen Sanders

Jessica Dubrow

Jeremy Ward

Brandon Chan

Terry Jewell

Abigail Thompson

 Jon Mastroianni

Liz Exton

Kevin MacKenzie

Russell Morin 

Susan Flegenheimer

Lea Di Miceli

Megan Hegedus 

Charles Deily

Emily Kanzer

Jessica Gordon

Shannon Egna

Laura Basileo

Kayla Nicholson

Sara Gottfried

Henry Moche

Jillian Davis

Pamela Tully

Maggie Russell

Kathy Moriarty

Nora Carpenter

Carolyn Vanasse

Keryn Gannon Steckloff

Holly Ahearn

Miranda Tygert O’Connell

Dianne Muendel

Shaina Martinez

Shannon Cline

Erin Grogan

Gwen Vitti

Sarah Wolff

Justin Brown

Erin Vebber

Quhao Huang

Vicki LaRiccia

Caroline Lew

Christine Moodie

Laura Horst

Mary Lee Mastroianni

Sharon R Kiernan

Lara Miller

Katy McGraw

Diane Cornish Issa

Margaret Avakian

Katherine Grenzeback

Colin King

Jill J Puleo Demsey

Kris Frye

Suzanne Currle

Angela Lo

Lora Smid

Jon Weinberger

David Lamour

Debra Morales

Catherine Perakis

Kate Hollander

Rachel Dolan

Akiko Kawai-Marbet

Nana Wen

Danya Mavor

Patrick Brien

Filed Under: Community, Contract Campaign News, Featured News, Negotiations Tagged With:

Log In


Lost your password?

Need Help Signing In

You can retrieve your password by following this link Retrieve Password

Archives

Latest Local Union News

  • BEU statement regarding changes to Brookline’s K-8 World Language program
  • 700+ educators sign in support of K8 World Language teachers
  • Join Us! Please register!
  • The Fundamental Four

Follow Us

  • Facebook

BEU Latest Tweets

  • Just now

RSS MTA News

  • Here to Stay & Prouder than Ever! June 18, 2025
  • Mass. educator unions demand fair fix to decades-long issue with RetirementPlus program June 17, 2025
  • Protecting Our Schools and Our Democracy June 12, 2025

RSS MTA Events

  • PDP: Supporting Multilingual Learners with the Updated IEP Form (Asynchronous)
  • NEA Board of Directors Meeting
  • PDP: Backdrop to Success: The Three Pillars of Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom (Asynchronous)

Copyright (C) 2025 · Brookline Educators Union · Part of the MTASITES NETWORK