Negotiations

700+ educators sign in support of K8 World Language teachers

May 20, 2023

The K-8 World Language Program in the Public Schools of Brookline supports the kind of cutting-edge learning that contributes to the excellent reputation of the town’s schools.

Lauded upon its arrival in 2008, K-8 World Language today is being seriously weakened unnecessarily due to systemic problems faced by too many of its teachers and students. There are too few World Language teachers in pockets of this comprehensive language program, and in some schools World Language is treated as an afterthought, creating inequities that are a disservice to both students and educators.

As a member of the Brookline Educators Union, I call on the School Committee or its designee to immediately return to the bargaining it began over an agreement to ensure the continued success of K8 World Language.

Such an agreement must involve issues of scheduling and staffing. A contractual agreement is the only way to guarantee that the educators responsible for the success of the K8 World Language Program are treated fairly, equitably, and with respect. BEU members stand together knowing that the schedules of our K8 colleagues are intertwined with ours, and that teaching is a joint, whole community endeavor. We reject any district strategy that undermines one subject area or educational service — and thus the educators responsible for it — in an effort to meet the needs of another. We know that schools are communities in which students and adults only flourish when everyone does.

Currently, too many K8 World Language Program educators are given excessively high student loads and untenable scheduling involving erratic teaching locations, no limit to the number of grade levels taught, and no limit to the number of sections. Furthermore, they are typically excluded from staff meetings due to scheduling. These conditions are untenable In a program that meets rigorous state standards using a target language exclusively in classes of students with highly varied degrees of language proficiency. In 2015, Brookline voters approved a tax hike to specifically support the K8 World Language program, whereas today these dedicated educators face precarious employment and are frequently threatened with layoffs.

Over the past five years, more than a dozen K8 World Language educators — over half in the program — have left the Brookline school district.

The BEU sees this as a failure on the part of the district to support an important program with a racially and ethnically diverse staff that promotes respect for diverse cultures and knowledge about the world beyond the town borders. Allowing further weakening of the K8 World Language program would be a devastating blow to the Public Schools of Brookline’s attempts to be a more culturally responsive school district for students and staff alike.

For these reasons, the BEU is demanding immediate action on the part of the School Committee to reach an agreement that protects the K8 World Language Program.

The Fundamental Four

May 15, 2023

Schools that are FULLY FUNDED
Schools that are FULLY STAFFED
Educators who are FULLY RESPECTED
A district that is FULLY EQUITABLE

These are the non-negotiable values our union will fight for every single day.

Brookline educators are springing into action on three key issues

Settle a Fair Contract for Paraeducators

End the exploitation of paraeducators and pay them a living wage; one job should be enough for these skilled and valuable educators.
Provide fair access to benefits, supplemental pay for substituting duties and better professional training.
Create a Building Support Professional role to foster a positive culture and climate in schools.

Fair Working Conditions for All K-8 World Language Teachers

The School committee must bargain fair scheduling and workload conditions for all educators, including all of the world language teachers who currently have unfair demands imposed on them.
The district must stop targeting our most racially and ethnically diverse cohort of educators with demoralizing working conditions, undermining our efforts to make Brookline schools more diverse.
The School Committee and school administration must respect the terms and spirit of the contracts it settles with union educators – our working conditions are the students’ learning conditions.

Transparent and fair use of federal ARPA funds for educators

Brookline received more than $8 million from the federal government to address the impact of the pandemic on our community.
The town is using some of those funds to pay bonuses to public employees who worked during the pandemic, and while all educators are eligible for such payments, they are not receiving them.
The town is sending an insulting and demoralizing message to educators by not providing a bonus to every Brookline educator who quickly adapted to support students throughout the height of the pandemic.

Last year, the BEU, with the support of the community, won a major contract battle to move our district forward. We cannot allow old, bad habits to sink in again.

Brookline residents want high-quality public schools.
The planning and budgeting necessary to maintain the schools require LEADERSHIP by those entrusted to provide students with the quality of education our community wants.
The educators who continually prove their ability to support, nurture and guide students through their academic and extracurricular endeavors deserve to be treated as PROFESSIONALS and with RESPECT.

What the BEU wants for Brookline:

Fully staffed schools that make safety a priority.
The district to stop the practice of issuing lay-off notices at the end of every school year. We keep losing good, young educators to this cruel and unnecessary budget tactic.
A school budget that is regarded as a values statement and not as a political lever.

BACK TO SCHOOL!

May 17, 2022

The Brookline Educators Union and the Brookline School Committee signed a tentative agreement at 4:20 am on May 17.

Educators will return to the buildings later this morning.

The BEU will join members of other unions and allies to celebrate the victory and exercise solidarity in a 3:30pm rally at Brookline Town Hall with other union locals that are fighting for fair contracts!

School Committee Forces BEU to Strike

May 15, 2022

Following over eight and a half hours of bargaining through the night, the Brookline School Committee failed to address the issues necessary to reach a contract agreement with the Brookline Educators Union, forcing educators to strike beginning Monday.

Throughout bargaining Saturday night into early Sunday morning, the Brookline School Committee refused educators’ need for:

Guaranteed daily duty free prep time
Guaranteed time for colleagues to collaborate weekly
Substantive action on attracting and retaining educators of color

The School Committee also would not present any proposals on the record. In addition, the BEU has agreed to a financial package that acknowledges the town’s fiscal mismanagement while standing firm that educators will not allow their wages to further erode.

The BEU has greatly pared down its list of original proposals to bare essentials. The BEU has made financial proposals that give the town tremendous flexibility to plan and prepare. The BEU has asked the superintendent to go beyond existing practices and consider using existing laws and policies to attract and retain educators of color and to commit to creating a report on the district’s workforce in regards to racial diversity and inclusion.

The School Committee is hiding behind a questionable interpretation of the Open Meeting Law to avoid bargaining that could prevent a strike.

Brookline educators can no longer tolerate the School Committee’s dismissive attitude toward educators or its willingness to dismantle the quality of our schools.

We remain open to negotiating with the School Committee throughout Sunday and beyond, to resolve a fair contract that preserves the working and learning conditions that our students and educators deserve.

Without Contract, Brookline Educators Authorize Strike for Monday, May 16

May 12, 2022

The members of the Brookline Educators Union overwhelmingly voted on Thursday evening to authorize a strike to begin Monday, May 16, should the Brookline School Committee and the BEU bargaining team fail to reach an agreement this weekend. The BEU and its supporters will be holding a rally at 10 a.m. Saturday at Brookline Town Hall. The BEU issued the following statement following the vote:

Brookline educators have been working for nearly three years without a contract that addresses fair and reasonable compensation as well as working conditions that meet the realities of a modern, comprehensive education. We have been patient. We have been bargaining in good faith. The Brookline Educators Union has never walked away from the bargaining table, contrary to what the School Committee claims.

Educators are simply fed up with the Brookline School Committee’s approach to bargaining – or rather its active avoidance of serious bargaining.

The BEU is adamant that agreements on the time that educators must prepare for their work with students, the time that they have to collaborate with colleagues and the ability for the district to attract and retain educators of color are not only legal subjects of bargaining but also of immense importance to the quality of education provided to the students in Brookline. The fact that the School Committee deems these concerns unworthy of discussion demonstrates a disheartening disregard for educators; it is also alarming evidence of the extent to which the committee is willing to erode the quality of education provided by Public Schools of Brookline.

Assertions by the School Committee and others about lower student enrollment are distractions. The needs of our students are greater than ever before, and the expectations of public schools to support the emotional and social as well as the academic needs of students have never been higher.

The inexcusable delays in settling contracts and the complete unwillingness to even talk about issues that have such an impact on students and the quality of education that we provide them have brought us to a point where Brookline educators must take bold action. We will no longer stand for the disrespect displayed in the approach to bargaining nor stand by while the School Committee persists in gutting a school system that many have considered to be not only among the best in the state but the best in the country. That quality is a product of the work done by the teachers, related service providers, aides, librarians, counselors, coaches, and staff working directly and daily with our students. We will always fight for what our students need and deserve.