Brookline Educators Union

Steps and “increases on the base”—they are not the same and both are necessary.

 

There are three types of pay increases that make up the majority of educator salaries in the United States. They are “steps,” COLA (cost-of-living adjustment), and increases “on the base” other than COLA that reflect community recognition of the value of the work.  (We’ll touch briefly on lanes as well).  
 
Steps are what make teaching into a career and not just a short-term job for those that are early on in their careers. Without steps few people would want to stay in teaching for any length of time. Historically steps were a way to make educators provide a discount early in their career, but not later. Would someone with 20 years experience and a masters degree take a job that pays $50,000 per year? 
 
Lanes are another compensation for experience. Lanes are the way that educators are compensated for their educational background: bachelors, masters, doctorate.
 
The other two ways that salaries are adjusted are responses to a changing social and economic context, and to account for inflation. 
 
Sometimes an increase on each salary, which appears in a “salary schedule” table as an increase in every “cell,” is described as a Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) in recognition of the impact of inflation. Without such increases, an educator would be taking a pay cut because the value of the dollar is decreasing.  Nobody would expect a teacher to work for a starting salary today that is the same as a starting salary from 20 years ago or even five years ago.  Who would take a teaching job that had a starting salary of $36,000, particularly in this region where the cost of living is as high as it is??
 
Another reason our salaries have increased is that working people have demanded that their work be respected. Our work as educators becomes more valued by society and as a result the compensation system has become more fair.  
  
To summarize, steps are salary increases to pay for experience while COLA and other raises are to keep the profession current with today’s salaries and the value of the work.  People often confuse “steps” with “increases on the base” of the salaries at every step. Without both, teaching does not continue as a respected profession.

Brookline Educators to Stop Voluntary Services

December 10, 2021

Dear Families, School Committee, and Central Administration: 

Because of the School Committee’s unwillingness to settle a fair contract and declaring impasse, the members of the Brookline Educators’ Union will stop participating in voluntary services beginning Dec. 13. We find it necessary to begin this work-to-rule action because we have concluded that the school committee and administration of Brookline Public Schools simply do not understand our working conditions or the demands on Brookline educators.

We have brought proposals to the bargaining table that we know are desperately needed and that our students deserve, among them: staffing improvements that lessen crushing teaching assignments and caseloads (including the unacceptable exploitation of K-8 World Language teachers); improved job security for staff of color who tend to be more vulnerable to staff cuts; added prep time for educators without loss of learning time for students; and cost of living increases that keep pace with inflation and reflect the value of our work. 

However, the message that educators continually hear from the school committee is, “Do more with less.”  This is insulting to educators who have never worked harder and a disservice to our students who have never needed more support. 

Even prior to the Covid pandemic, we communicated to the school committee at the bargaining table that the contracts need to be updated to reflect growing demands on educators and our schools. 

While Brookline’s enrollment ballooned by 35%, cost-of-living adjustments flatlined and hiring and retention did not keep pace, particularly when it came to hiring and retaining our colleagues of color and those of non-U.S. national origin. 

The district’s administrators have increased the daily demands on all of us, and educators’ jobs are becoming unsustainable.  The district’s approach is hurting our ability to deliver to our students the quality of education that we want them to receive. While superintendents, senior administrators, and principals have been in a chaotic flux, the rank and file have kept the Public Schools of Brookline afloat.

Unwilling to put real solutions in writing, the school committee then added proposals that extend the K-8 school day with no added pay, weaken grievance rights, and diminish the exercise of professional judgment. Having done that, the school committee will now not speak with us at the table at all. The committee’s lawyer reports that the school committee members decided unilaterally that we are at an impasse. The disrespect continues as the district tries to turn its responsibility to negotiate with union members over to a state mediator despite themselves having only recently introduced the major proposals above. 

Our existing, expired contract remains in effect, and we have decided that we must work firmly within its boundaries until such time that the administration is willing to treat us as professionals and with respect. Educators have willingly given their time above and beyond the obligations set out in our contracts, and we happily do so to create the learning environment that we want for our students. But we have arrived at the point where it is clear that the School Committee is shamefully taking advantage of us.

We are united in our resolve to settle a contract that strengthens our schools and our profession. We can no longer stand by as the school committee approach slowly erodes the quality and reputation of Brookline’s schools. 

Below is the list of work that educators perform above and beyond our contractual obligations and that extends our day far too long under current staffing arrangements. We continue to urge the school committee to return to the bargaining table in a way that respects BEU educators as true partners in the effort to strengthen our schools.  

 

WORK ACTIVITY THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN:

 

  • Brookline educators will be refraining from responding to emails outside of contractual work hours.
  • All Brookline educators are contractually guaranteed a duty-free lunch period. Seldom, if ever, do we have a period of time that is truly duty free. We will be observing the language of our (expired) contract and maintaining duty free lunch time. 
  • Educators are also guaranteed a duty-free prep period. We will refrain from attending meetings during this time. This time is essential (and presently insufficient) to prepare lessons, grade, and conduct other essential work duties. 
  • Brookline educators will be leaving schools within 60 minutes of the end of the contractual workday, except in cases where educators are performing paid or stipended duties.
  • Brookline educators will not be grading student work outside of contractual work hours. Since there is not enough time in the contractual workday, let alone the 24-hour work day, to grade,  Brookline educators will be using creative alternatives to assess student learning. 
  • Progress reports at the Middle and High School levels will be streamlined.
    • High school teachers use pre-written comments for struggling students, and “making sufficient progress” for students who are not in danger.
    • Middle school teachers write SAT/UNSAT 

We ask for your consideration and support as we continue to dedicate ourselves to ensuring that our students receive an extraordinary education in the Public Schools of Brookline. 

Sincerely,

The Educators of the BEU

Why is it so hard to get a contract?

The Brookline Educators Union is fighting for a fair contract because educators know that collective bargaining is the best way to secure working conditions and compensation that value our professionalism and create learning conditions that we want for our students.  

 

Why is it so hard to get contracts in Brookline?  The answer to the question now is simple:  The school committee is moving in the wrong direction.  The school committee has been unwilling to agree to contractual changes necessary to meet the challenges of an ever-changing educational landscape.  

 

We have proposed:

 

  • Fair cost of living adjustments.  
  • Measures to address structural racism.  
  • Additional time for planning that is properly staffed to ensure no loss of student learning time.  

 

In response, suddenly the school committee has introduced new “asks”:

 

  • Create a longer school day with no additional  pay. 
  • Reduce educators’ union rights to address unjust treatment. 
  • Eliminate language that protects educators’ ability to exercise professional judgement.  

 

 

Does this look like the school committee wants an agreement?

 

The school committee repeatedly has been unwilling to commit contractually to learning conditions that our students need.  In the absence of a forward-looking contract, Brookline educators have seen work piled on individuals. This top-down approach impedes educators’ ability to teach, demonstrates a disregard for educators’ professionalism, and ultimately produces frustrating conditions for students and educators alike. 

 

The members of the BEU have had enough from the school committee: Enough disrespect. Enough empty talk that continually fails to consider the impact of one-sided decisions that affect the students we teach.  Enough dodging and ducking the responsibility of making a commitment to the public schools Brookline deserves. 

 

Our contract is as much of a value statement as it is a document of working conditions. The BEU is bargaining for schools that meet the academic, social and emotional needs of students.  We are bargaining for schools where social, racial and economic justice are central to the public education mission.  Our hard work to negotiate fair contracts is driven by the desire to have a school district where there is transparency in the decision-making and a contract that is a just and responsive, living document.  

 

A contract is a commitment to resources and provides predictability and norms for our students and their families. We are no longer going to tolerate protracted periods of working without contracts. Our educators deserve better. Our students deserve better. Our community deserves better.

 

Here are some more specifics about the goals that we are now prioritizing:

 

  • A Just Wage: Increase educators’ salaries by an average of 3% per year during the 3-year contract term (retroactive to 2020-2021).
  • Fair Workload for Specialists and K-8 World Language Teachers: Reduce the untenable workload of the district’s Specialist and K-8 World Language teachers, who are required to teach more classes across multiple grade levels and lack opportunities to participate in their school communities.
  • Common Planning Time: Create additional common planning time for educators to facilitate collaboration across grade levels, academic departments, and schools.
  • Adequate Staffing: Hire additional personnel, recruiting from Brookline neighborhoods facing the highest unemployment rates to increase the diversity of our staff, cover all of the building-based duties, and open up common planning time for educators.
  • Retaining a Diverse Workforce: Grant BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) educators Professional Teacher Status (PTS) as early as allowed by law and adopt regular meetings between them and the superintendent

 

In support of transparency

Educators extend our gratitude to the parents, guardians, and caregivers, and other members of the Brookline community, who have been reaching out to us with words of support and sincere questions about what issues are on the bargaining table and what is prompting collective action in the schools.  

 

For some time, we have asked the School Committee to open up negotiations to the public so that members of the community can hear our concerns, see how we work as a union, and judge for themselves whether our proposals are good for our students and schools.  We hope you will encourage the School Committee to finally open up the sessions.  

 

Educators do not take the decision to engage in collective action lightly. Unfortunately, every other effort we have made to see serious problems addressed by the district has not worked, leaving us with no other choice. Conditions we are addressing have for too long been degrading educators’ ability to do their best work and to sustain a career commitment to the Public Schools of Brookline.  This prolonged, grinding situation is already hurting children much more than our efforts to get to an agreement with the school committee quickly.  The conditions we are addressing are definitely not as visible and dramatic as a work action is, but they are ultimately more disruptive of quality educational services and our ability to translate our love of our students into substantive supports that we want to deliver. 

 

Here are our current bargaining priorities of our three year contract:

 

  • A Just Wage: Increase educators’ salaries an average of 3% per year during the 3-year contract term (retroactive to 2020-2021)
  • Fair Workload for K-8 World Language Teachers and teachers of “specials”: Reduce the untenable workload of the district’s K-8 World Language and other teachers who are required to teach more classes across multiple grade levels without opportunities to participate in their school communities
  • Common Planning Time: Create additional common planning time for educators to facilitate collaboration across grade levels, academic departments, and schools
  • Adequate Staffing: Hire additional personnel  from Brookline neighborhoods facing the highest unemployment rates to increase the diversity of our staff, cover building-based duties, and open up common planning time for educators
  • Retaining a Diverse Workforce: Grant BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) educators Professional Teacher States (PTS) as early as allowed by law and regular meeting with the superintendent

 

We encouraged members of the community to challenge claims that the town “simply has no money.”  This is just not just not true, and if it is “the case”, then it is by choice. In 2019, Brookline placed 29th lowest (or 322nd highest) in tax rates while being in the top 10% in income (even higher in income by some accounts). If Proposition 2 ½ is in the way, it is past time to make means of funding of public services as great a priority as austerity talk. Furthermore, community stake-holders, including the educators of Brookline, are supposed to be part of decisions about how to use $40 million in stimulus funds.  We hope you will stand with us.

 

Please contact the School Committee at school_committee@psbma.org and insist that this bargaining process becomes transparent and happens in public–right away.

BEU Educators Postpone Back-to-School-Night

On September 24, BEU educators at BHS sent out a personalized version of the following message:

 

Dear Parents, Guardians and Caregivers,

I was looking forward to meeting all of you via Zoom at Brookline High School’s annual Back to School Night Event on September 30th.  Unfortunately, for the third September in a row, a new school year has arrived and my colleagues and I are working without a contract. This has too often been the case. For another year, this means yet another pay cut for all of us because our salaries have not kept up with inflation.  When the School Committee resists giving serious attention to working conditions and refuses to consider true cost-of-living adjustments–leaving our salaries and working conditions unresolved–it means I do not have the full financial picture for my family and myself or a way to plan my worklife.  It is doubly stressful given the current state of the pandemic, since health and safety measures are also addressed through negotiations.  

Therefore, I write to let you know that I will be postponing the back to school night event until three-year contracts are signed for Units A & B (teachers, related service providers, and administrators).  If you have questions, please direct them to the School Committee.

Lawrence Educators Statement in Support of Schools Our Students Deserve

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

Statement from the Brookline Educators Union (BEU): July 1st, 2021

On June 30, both the Brookline Educators Union and the School Committee ratified a contract for Paraprofessionals that will move educators in that bargaining unit considerably closer to a living wage and parity in sick and other leave time that has long been denied them.  We celebrate the success of the partnership between the union and school district that is reflected in this agreement. However, the School Committee unfortunately fell short when it came to reaching a fair agreement for all of the other unionized educators in our district.  

 

For Units A and B, the BEU made every effort to meet the School Committee “where they are ”: 

 

  • we pared down our list of issues to make a quick agreement possible,
  • we limited our Unit A & B salary proposals to reflect a conservative assessment of the rising cost of living.  We asked for only 2-3% more in each of the years of the contract (which includes a proposed increase in long stagnant stipends for clubs and other enrichment), 
  • we structured the timing of the increases so that much of those increases were delayed, giving the district time to work with the budget and incoming, increased funding.  
  •  

The School Committee’s response was to come back with an offer of 5.5% over 3 years, even as the CPI (consumer price index) for Cambridge/Boston/Newton has risen 3.2% from a year ago (5/20-5/21). Inflation would quickly wipe out the School Committee’s proposed pay increase. Thus, we are still at the bargaining table to reach a fair agreement for the A & B units and we ask for community support.

 

As Brookline educators, we strive to provide what the Public Schools of Brookline vision statement seeks, “an extraordinary education for every child.” Our contract proposals and “open bargaining” approach are designed to support a “community [that is] well informed and involved in the schools [and] supports these efforts that continue a tradition of challenging ourselves to do better, efforts that ensure the enduring value of a Brookline education.”

 

This past school year has been the hardest year of many of our careers, and it followed a decade marked by an unprecedented surge in enrollment that was never matched with proportional staff increases. During all of these years, the School Committee has expressed regret that they could not afford to lessen the burden on educators with higher pay and/or smaller classes and caseloads so that we could deliver the highest quality education.  With enrollments as volatile as they are, the district needs to plan long term for a large system.

 

Fortunately, the federal and state governments have given Brookline a way to finally properly design and implement a responsible, longer-term school budget.  Thanks to organizing efforts in which unionized educators have played a key role, a robust federal stimulus package will make a major difference while serving as a bridge to the committed, additional long-term funding coming from the state. The Massachusetts Student Opportunity Act  will be bringing millions of additional dollars into our schools annually.  Major new funding will also likely be coming from a tax on income over one million dollars.  We hope our partners on the School Committee and others in the community will join us in working to ensure the success of the Fair Share tax. These increased short term and long term sources of funding have given us a chance to greatly improve upon our local budgeting approach and implement a new system that truly serves our community over the long run by helping us recruit and retain highly skilled educators.  We have an opportunity with unprecedented federal and state funding to join together to return Brookline Schools to the time when they were the envy of all.

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