Lawrence teacher: “Parents must decide what educational philosophy they want for their children…”
The community deserves to know more about the school budget
THE COMMUNITY DESERVES TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE SCHOOL BUDGET
I write as the President of the BEU. Our Representative Council – with members from every school and every department of the High School– unanimously stands behind this statement.
The BEU believes that key information is missing from the school district budget – and from summaries of it–and that the community deserves to have this information. Furthermore, teachers, too, are entitled to the missing information because we believe that the School Committee hasn’t been fully candid with us. They have told us that every penny from the Override has been carefully allotted in accordance with promises made to the voters, so there is no flexibility when it comes to budgeting.
We have called for remedies to a crushing workload crisis that we believe is damaging learning and teaching and that is taking the eye of educators’ off of a first priority: creating safe classrooms for our student body that is reflective of the inclusion model.
We think there are signs in this budget of a ramping up of a top-down central bureaucracy that is bent on making teachers do more data collection, data entry, and standardized teaching than they are doing now. Voters are entitled to ask whether there are savings to be found in both time and money that could increase support for the kind of education they sought, and expected, when they voted for the Override. Let’s let the community make their own judgment as to whether promises are being kept.
The School Committee boasts that only 10% of the budget goes to central administration, but what about the question of how the central administration is using their time, teachers’ time and students’ time? The budget notes that money for a “newly forming department,” the Office of Strategy and Performance, has been placed in the educational technology budget awaiting a new Technology Plan that does not now exist. Voters were promised that educational technology would be used to enrich students’ use computers for learning and to make that experience equitable across buildings. We want to see a Technology Plan.
The budget document says that at some later date in FY17, the school committee will decide how moneys will allocated to educational technology and this “newly forming department.” We are told that this key part of district restructuring will be focused on “the creation of new student data and staff data” to “drive continuous improvement in learning, achievement, instruction, and operations.” The community has a right to know more about this plan now.
We want to know how much override money and other district funds will be diverted to increasing the number of assessments and standardized tests that involve pulling children away from their peers, and teachers from their classrooms. Parents understand that we cannot afford to spend money and time on more and more one-size-fits-all paperwork that distracts teachers from discovering and fostering the unique talents and needs of each of their students. We believe that the amount of data that is increasing uniformity in teaching is already damaging teachers’ ability to create and nurture a cohesive and joyful sense of community in the classroom.
It is way too late to repair the damage done by this school committee’s failure to catch up with the growing enrollment that seems to have been hiding in plain sight from this School Committee for the last decade. But since they are failing to meet the emergency staffing needs of our buildings in spite of the current hiring, the teachers of this town now expect that they will make it possible for them to put the immediate needs of our students first. That means carefully considering what the priorities are for funding and the use of teacher time.
We think they should publicly release exactly what the allocation of funds, and the workload plans, are for this restructuring of the district that they say they will figure out later.
Proposals for limiting workload
Brookline Educators Speak Out about the Lack of Contract
Why are Brookline teachers still working without a contract?
How long have Brookline educators been without a contract?
Brookline educators have now been working without a contract for over 200 days. While this number is the technical length of time that we’ve been without a contract, the reality is that we have been attempting to negotiate a fair, long-term contract with the School Committee since the spring of 2014. With the prospect of a budget override looming, educators agreed to a one-year bridge contract that would allow the School Committee to provide voters with finalized budget numbers, and with the understanding that we would continue negotiating around working and learning conditions, not just money.
Throughout this school year, as teachers have begun to take action, School Committee negotiations chair Rebecca Stone has released statements noting that the School Committee has met with the BEU many times to negotiate, and thus the School Committee has indeed been negotiating “in good faith.” While it is true that the School Committee has met with BEU negotiators many times, the idea of bargaining in good faith does not simply mean that you go to the table, it means that you go there with proposals that show an understanding of the needs of educators, and that help to support them in the classroom. What has actually happened, however, is that the School Committee has emphatically rejected every proposal that the teachers have made with regard to workload. They have absolutely refused to make any proposals or counter-proposals of their own that seriously address these vital concerns. Their refrain has been a steady and repetitive one of “trust us to make things better” and we want control over all “managerial functions.”
What are teachers asking for?
As teachers, we work tirelessly for our students. With the continued rise in enrollment across the district and in the face of an ever-increasing number of local and state mandates, we feel overburdened by demands on our time that remove us from the classroom or take away from lesson planning. The things we’re asking for reflect a desire to be present in the classroom and teach well, and they are our way of advocating for our students and the conditions that we feel are necessary to do our very best work. We want to:
- Prioritize individual attention for every child
- Assess specialists’ workloads, limit caseloads & reduce number of students so we can meet the needs of all learners
- Guarantee every educator the time to prepare to teach every day
- Limit non-instructional tasks (data entry & paperwork, meeting time)
- Create a public Workload Oversight Committee (WOC). The WOC would review new district initiatives and changes to workload, including paperwork, to ensure that all staff have a place to go with concerns about workload. The committee would have a mechanism for addressing those concerns, and teachers would be given assurances that no workload or paperwork will be increased unless approved by the WOC. Meetings would be open to the public, so that they will be transparent.
- Enhance the safety of our students and staff.
- Introduce “special populations” caseload review
- Assign more than one educator to rooms (libraries and music classes) with 65 or more children
- Increase classroom safety with appropriate staffing & equipment
- Respect the professionalism of our educators.
- Reserve time in staff meetings to discuss educator concerns
- Guarantee fair compensation for all, including a living wage & fair scheduling for Paraprofessionals. Paraprofessionals are tasked with supporting the most vulnerable members of our school population, and yet the average paraprofessional takes home less than $400 per week. This is far less than anything that could be considered a living wage, and most paraprofessionals are forced to work two, or even three jobs to make ends meet.
Teachers gave many hours of presentations to the School Committee detailing the extra burdens that are being placed upon us, how it impacts our ability to provide quality instruction for each and every one of our students, and why educators believe that our proposals are a critical component of maintaining the high-quality education that residents of Brookline have come to expect, and that each and every one of our students deserves. Unfortunately these presentations seem to have fallen on deaf ears, as none of our requests for help, support, and true collaboration have been granted.
Why is the School Committee responding this way?
In a word: TRUST. The School Committee has, in many ways, forgotten to trust its teachers. Something in Brookline has shifted and, instead of trusting teachers to do their job, the School Committee has instituted a culture of top-down management and data collection. Much of this data collection falls on the shoulders of teachers. In fact, the School Committee has publicly acknowledged that new administrators have been hired with the override money in order to manage and increase said data. Teachers feel this intense burden, and see very little impact of this data collection on our ability to support children in the classroom. Rather, we lose precious hours of quality instructional time, and turn in endless spreadsheets filled with data about our students that does not directly benefit teaching and learning in our classrooms and schools. This is happening at all grade levels, beginning in Pre-K and Kindergarten.
While we of course understand that there are monetary implications associated with negotiations, what we have NOT heard from the School Committee is: “We are dedicated to supporting Brookline teachers in any way we can, we value your input and expertise, and will work with you as a team to agree on binding contract language that really changes working and learning conditions for the better.” What we have heard about contract language, very simply, is “No.”
Educator morale across the district is at an all-time low. We feel disrespected, devalued, and unheard by the members of the School Committee who were elected to support our schools. To us, respect for educators means that we are asked about what is happening on the ground, in our classrooms, and that our voices are heard and valued. If you want to know what’s happening in the classroom, ask a teacher!
We are highly educated professionals who understand deeply the challenges and needs of our school communities. We have dedicated our careers and lives to this profession that we feel so passionately about, and put our hearts and souls into meeting the needs of every child that sets foot in our schools every day. In the end, this negotiation is really about our quality of work life, which in turn really are the learning conditions of Brookline students.
Misinformation about “work to rule”
In a February 29th statement from the School Committee, Ms. Stone referenced the idea of work to rule. Work to rule means that teachers do only what is specifically stated in their contract. Brookline teachers are not working to rule now, and we hope that we will not have to. While teachers have indeed begun to take action to open up time to teach, and in hopes of drawing attention to our cause, we have taken great pains to ensure that our actions do not affect the learning conditions of our students. Ms. Stone was also very clear that “such actions do not change the nature or status of negotiations.” Teachers have found this to be very true, and after over a year of negotiating in hopes that our voices would be heard, we are now reaching out to the larger Brookline community and asking for your support.
As more and more administrators and teachers continue to leave Brookline, educators know that our district is at a critical crossroads. We view these negotiations to be about a vision for our schools, one that will ensure that Brookline continues to serve as a beacon for excellence in education that draws families from all over the world to our town; one that encourages innovation in teaching, respects the voices of its dedicated professionals, and gives them the time and support that they need to do their very best work.
We thank you for your time, consideration, and support of the schools, students, and teachers of Brookline,
Sincerely,
The Brookline Educators Union
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