Come meet with
MTA President Barbara Madeloni
Vice President Janet Anderson
& MTA Past President Anne Wass
MON. MARCH 14, 3:30pm BHS MLK room
At the MTA Annual Meeting, May 13 & 14, delegates will elect the next MTA
president, vice-president, and other MTA leadership. Janet Anderson and
former VP Tim Sullivan are each running to unseat Barbara Madeloni.
This is an opportunity for you to hear how each candidate seeks to strengthen
the BEU, the MTA, our profession, and public education.
ALL MEMBERS OF BEU UNITS ARE INVITED!
PLEASE ALSO CONSIDER NOMINATING YOURSELD AS A DELEGATE!
Runkle Parents Speak!
As concerned Runkle parents, we would like to alert you to a challenge facing our teachers and the entire Brookline public school system. PLEASE WRITE TO THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS LISTED BELOW IN SUPPORT OF OUR TEACHERS!
For the past year and a half, our valued teachers and paraprofessionals have been laboring without a [long-term] contract. The nine elected members of the Brookline School Committee, are tasked with negotiating the terms of their contract. Despite having received detailed proposals a year and a half ago from the teachers, the Committee has, in our view, failed to negotiate in good faith and remains uncommunicative with regard to its own aims.
Brookline teachers have raised a number of concerns that we as parents share: the impact of worsening student-educator ratios; the loss of personal attention to students as teachers are forced to spend time on paperwork and administrative duties associated with the push for management metrics; the need to do more to ensure the safety of students and staff; and the top-down management requirements that stifle teacher initiative and a diversity of viewpoints.
At a School Committee meeting on February 4, teachers and parents were given a forum to articulate their concerns. But the response with which they were met was so cursory and, seemingly, contemptuous that the teachers walked out. Our children deserve better than this.
Our teachers are telling us that the situation is reaching a crisis point. We encourage you to educate yourselves about the situation, seek to understand all points of view, and most importantly, contact the School Committee with your feedback.
We believe that there is an opportunity to act, and to act in a way that will ensure that Brookline’s public schools keep their reputation as among the best in the state. The Brookline community has demonstrated its willingness to fund the schools with the recent vote in support of the override. And federal and state authorities have relaxed some of the controls that they were previously trying to impose. But in order to make the best of this situation, all parties will need to engage in constructive dialogue leading to action. And that won’t happen without community involvement – and in particular, pressure from parents.
Below, we are including a list of all School Board members and their contact information. We are also including a link to the Brookline Teachers Union, which outlines teachers’ concerns.
https://brookline.massteacher.org/
School Committee Members:
Susan Wolf Ditkoff
Chairman
susan_ditkoff@brookline.k12.ma.us
Barbara Scotto
Vice Chairman
barbara_scotto@brookline.k12.ma.us
P.H. Benjamin Chang
Member
Helen Charlupski
Member
helen_charlupski@brookline.k12.ma.us
Michael Glover
Member
michael_glover@brookline.k12.ma.us
Lisa Jackson
Member
lisa_jackson@brookline.k12.ma.us
David Pollak
Member
david_pollak@brookline.k12.ma.us
Rebecca Stone
Member
rebecca_stone@brookline.k12.ma.us
Beth Jackson Stram
Member
Parents Petition — Support BEU Educators!
Sign Here
BARGAINING UPDATE & CALL TO ACTION—FEB 4
We had a bargaining session on February 1. The school committee, citing many excuses, was completely unprepared, failing to give us long-promised counter-proposals on our many issues related to time to teach, workload, paperwork, and other proposals concerning our expanding jobs. We are sorry to report that they had nothing – telling us they would have something at our session on March 1.
The negotiators have concluded that the only way to get what we need is to engage in an escalating set of actions that demonstrate our commitment to fight for the schools our children deserve.
BEU MEMBERS & PARENTS:
ATTEND SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING
THURSDAY, FEB. 4
- Members are encouraged to arrive outside of Town Hall – 5:15-5:30.
- Parents: Encourage them to arrive by 5:30.
- Gather outside with signs.
- We’ll make our way to the 5thfloor by 5:50.
- School Committee meeting begins at 6 on 5thfloor of Town Hall.
- Public comment is at 6:35.
- Sign up to speak upon arrival, with comments preferably to be kept to 3 minutes.
Why we are in the streets
In recent weeks, many hundreds of Brookline educators have filled school sidewalks, the entrance to Town Meeting, and the center of Coolidge Corner. Teachers, Paraprofessionals, Specialists and administrators have held signs proclaiming their collective bargaining proposals. What are the educators saying; and why have they taken their message to the streets?
Their signs say, “Time to Teach!” “Class Size Matters!” “Respect Paraprofessionals!” and “We need safer classrooms!” In April 2104, the union negotiating team proposed contract language pressing issues at the heart of teaching and learning in Brookline today. These proposals came from surveys of, and meetings with, its union members. As negotiations began a year and a half ago, the team reported to the School Committee that yes, educators sent us in to convey that childcare, housing, and college costs were pressing in on educators and their families. And yet, their greatest emphasis was on the threats in Brookline to the excellence of the education our educators want to deliver.
Our members sent us to the table demanding that we fight to reverse damage being done to quality teaching by top-down mandates and initiatives, excessive workloads, and understaffing. Right now, there are much needed paraprofessional positions that are unfilled. BEU negotiators made sure that there would be no ground rules that would get in the way of discussion of the ideas on the table with parents and other members of the interested Brookline public. BEU members have now, 18 months after initially making these proposals, turned to the public for support, as we have not yet received from the School Committee one counterproposal addressing these vital concerns.
BEU educators are experts on what it takes to teach in our buildings and with our growing enrollment. Our proposals are designed to work effectively in our current schools. Many of the proposals, such as a trouble-shooting building Para who can step in during emergencies, are very affordable or cost nothing at all (safety protocols that will lessen the growing number of injuries to educators in some of our programs, caseload review that assesses the intensity of cases; time in meetings for teacher concerns; elimination of paperwork or data collection equivalent to the amount added). Many of the proposals do not need extra building space (a second educator in rooms with 65 or more children), and none require extending the length of the school day.
We have been waiting for the School Committee to show us that they take our proposals seriously by addressing specifically and with contract language the many matters we have brought up in bargaining. Unfortunately, they have not yet done so. So we are now asking the community to call the members of the school committee and demand that they settle a fair contract.
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