BEU Advisory

November 3, 2016

For additional information, contact BEU President Jessica Wender-Shubow, 617-277-0251, 508-944-0239

Rally to Support

Brookline Educators

When: 5:15 pm, Thursday Nov. 10

Where: Brookline Town Hall, 333 Washington St.

Paraprofessionals and unionized administrators in the Brookline Public Schools are still working without a contract. Brookline Educators Union members and their community supporters are holding a rally Thursday, Nov. 10, before the School Committee meeting to demand a fair wage for the paraprofessionals and a reasonable workload for administrators.

The BEU will then share that message with the Brookline School Committee following the rally.

The school committee and BEU have a tentative agreement for classroom teachers, but the paraprofessionals and unionized building administrators are still at the bargaining table.

Negotiations were scheduled for Nov 9. Negotiations that began Tuesday, Oct. 25 and ran well past midnight on Wednesday, Oct 26, ended with no agreement and with the parties far apart, especially on wages and job security for paraprofessionals.

“The BEU wants to move paraprofessionals toward salary comparability with Newton,” said BEU President Jessica Wender-Shubow. “We want the salary for full-time paras to have a floor of $20,000. The school committee is balking at that, offering wage increases that amount to less than $2.00 a day for most, keeping the wages of many paraprofessionals at under $19,000 a year. We are also far apart on basic job security, with the school committee refusing any layoff and recall language for paraprofessionals.”

Most paraprofessionals in Brookline are classroom aides. The current starting salary for a classroom aide in Brookline working 32 hours per week for 183 days is $18,036. An aide working those hours in Newton earns $20,203. After seven years of service, an aide in Brookline makes $24,408, though in Newton would earn $28,554. After 15 years of service, the aide in Brookline is still paid $24,408, but in Newton would make $41,179.

Brookline Public Schools currently employ 350 paraprofessionals, 125 of which were hired this year. There are openings for almost 20 more paraprofessionals.

“We need a wage that attracts and retains the best educators that we can. Brookline students deserve no less,” said Wendy MacMillan, a paraprofessional and member of the BEU negotiations team.

Administrators who are members of the BEU are seeking contract provisions that address their shifting and increasing job responsibilities.

“Classroom teachers are extremely grateful for the community support we received during our negotiations with the school committee,” Wender-Shubow said. “The committee now needs to fairly treat the remaining BEU members working without contracts. The paraprofessionals, administrators and classroom teachers really function as a unit, each part vital to making sure that every Brookline Public Schools student is receiving an excellent education.”

BEU issues press release on Paraprofessional and Administrator contracts

October 18, 2016

JOIN US NOVEMBER 1, 5:15 Town Hall, for School Committee Meeting. Stay for Open Comment and support Paraprofessionals and union administrators!

Some Brookline Educators Still Working Without Contracts

While teachers have reached a tentative agreement with the Brookline School Committee for a new contract, the Brookline Educators Union is still trying to hammer out new contracts with the Brookline School Committee for paraprofessionals and administrators in the union.

At a BEU membership meeting on Oct. 5, members unanimously voted to withdraw voluntary participation in administrative committees until agreements can be reached with the paraprofessionals and unionized administrators. Educators will continue to engage in voluntary activities that directly benefit students.

The paraprofessionals are seeking a wage increase and the administrators want to address workload issues.

“Our paraprofessionals are grossly underpaid, and they provide invaluable service to the school system,” said BEU President Jessica Wender-Shubow. “The school committee needs to recognize the professionalism and level of skill involved in the work the paras do. Brookline can do that by providing a livable wage for those doing this important and difficult work.”

Wendy MacMillan, a paraprofessional for 16 years in Brookline’s early childhood education program, said that with the same level of experience she’d be making $16,000 more annually if she worked in neighboring Newton. She noted that because of the poor compensation for Brookline’s paraprofessionals, the schools are having difficulty attracting and retaining qualified personnel for the positions.

A shortage of paraprofessionals affects all students, not just those receiving direct services from a para.

Wender-Shubow said that the school committee ignores the fact that paraprofessionals occasionally cover classes for teachers, freeing them up for meetings and other district work; and that paraprofessionals often work with students who have significant academic and emotional needs.

BEU-represented administrators, such as vice principals, are frustrated by shifting and increasing job responsibilities that make it difficult to support the teachers and classroom staff in their buildings.

“The BEU recognizes the importance of all members of our union. We are all educators, and we are all integral to the education we provide students in Brookline,” Wender-Shubow said. “We do not consider this labor dispute resolved until the paraprofessionals and administrators have settled their contracts.”

BEU supports opening up bargaining to public

June 30, 2016

BEU negotiators respond to the latest School Committee statement

June 26, 2016

Sadly, the first specific statement from the Brookline School Committee about negotiations with the BEU is provably false. Their offer does not contain the percentage increases they report. We wish that it did; we would be closer to settling the contract. It is in fact $785.00, less than 1 percent average, in year one; $1600.00, about a 2 percent average increase in year two (given the average pay of the bargaining unit, $79,010), and in year 3, a 2 percent increase. They also proposed the possibility of an additional year of the contract, with a 2 percent increase in September and 1 percent that would start on the 92nd school day. Included is an additional step in the salary scale, at 1% above the current top step, and a mandatory additional 2.5 hours a week to the elementary teacher’s in-school time (30 minutes extra a day). The BEU rejected the notion of such an additional year, as the additional time would increase the elementary teacher’s mandatory day by roughly 7.5%, without a compensatory increase in pay.

There are many issues regarding student safety, class size, workload, paperwork, and preparation time that remain unresolved. The BEU is happy to review both our proposals and the School Committee’s proposals, word for word, with anyone who is interested. We and the School Committee have ground rules that we agreed on before negotiations began that prevent members of the public from attending our bargaining sessions. However, we are prepared to open up these negotiations to public scrutiny if the School Committee would also so agree.

BEU Negotiators report to the membership

June 17, 2016

We had a tough mediated negotiations session last night. After two years of bargaining, the School Committee has brought a new demand to the table. They already proposed the option of adding two additional workdays, including Saturdays, at half pay. Now they insist on a longer elementary school day, and refuse compensation for it that they have agreed to attach to extra time in the past. Why this sudden change in negotiating strategy? Why rather than addressing workload and trusting teachers, educators’ number one concerns, is the School Committee now trying to force teachers to do even more uncompensated work?

Late in the evening, BEU negotiators asked the School Committee to talk with us face-to-face, not through the mediator. We wanted them to tell us what their rationale is for these proposals. Why are they seeking to tie a longer school day to proposed salary increases that are already lower than most teachers in this region are being given, and lower than the amount that they, themselves have been telling the community that they already set aside for salary increases? We were given no good reason for any of this.

Brookline educators are fully aware that seeking to require elementary teachers to stay in the building longer is nothing but a distraction from the core problem at the heart of these negotiations. The School Committee continues to refuse to agree to any process that will ensure expectations of educators cannot be constantly expanded without limit. The same minutes of the day—be they during school hours or after—cannot be double and triple booked with added data burdens and the expectation of ever more meetings to implement ever more top-down initiatives. Such demands shift teachers’ attention away from building relationships with students who are whole human beings with unique and singular needs.

We have another session on June 29. No sessions are scheduled after that, and given recent developments we are more frustrated than ever. We remain far apart on the Paraprofessional contract as well. We note that when the School Committee recently celebrated that they have been able to cap most elementary classes at 25, they did not bring up that over 100 high school classes have 25 or more students, and close to 150 have at least 24. They have not explained their refusal to preserve currently existing limits on classes per teacher, or their refusal to discuss caseloads with clinicians. We remain committed to ensuring that growing enrollments coupled with unrealistic expectations will not continue to erode quality education in Brookline. Brookline educators know that our schools are at a critical crossroads. When will the School Committee respond to the concerns of those who spend our days in the classroom with students? When will they return to a relationship of trust and respect of teachers?