Brookline Educators Union

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.

The case against staffing cuts

Year after year the staff of Brookline Schools has heard how they have carried the load as the school district was bursting at the seams. We taught large classes, we taught in hallways, we taught with limited support and resources.

 

After the most difficult year of teaching in everyone’s career, we are being told that some positions must be cut due to lower enrollment. This is a shortsighted and destructive move. Nobody knows what the enrollment will be next year. Will parents who homeschooled want to return their students? Will international families be returning? Will families that went to private schools now be returning? The answer is we don’t know. 

 

Despite the district’s inability to retain Town Hall administration and principals, the educators in the system have kept the district delivering quality education for Brookline students. There is every reason to believe that the numbers will come back, and that as we get beyond the pandemic the student population will rebound. So reducing staff is shortsighted.

 

Reducing staff is also destructive. It is destructive when reduction of staff necessarily leads to other teachers being assigned to pick up additional sections that remain to be covered in their absence. This means students will be taught by teachers who are spread more thin and who may be less experienced in a subject area.  It is destructive because it makes everyone who works in the schools feel undervalued and like “part of the machinery.” It is destructive because it makes Brookline less attractive as a destination for outstanding educators.

 

With a large amount of Federal funds coming in, and increased state funds on the horizon, now is not the time for cuts. Next year is a year when we need all of the skilled staff that make up the Public Schools of Brookline. Even if classes are smaller at the start of the year, what better time for increased support than as we recover from a pandemic? 

 

For far too long and in far too many areas Brookline is reactive not proactive. Here is an opportunity to be considered and think long term. The federal government is funding the opportunity to maintain the valuable school system that has taken generations to build. Last year the Public Schools of Brookline laid off over 360 staff because the district had not been  doing the hard work of long term planning. While most were hired back, quite a few chose to move on. We have chronically not been able to hire enough paraprofessionals to serve our children. We have begun to lose valued teachers.

 

If you want to have world class schools, you need world class educators. That does not happen if you hire and fire people as if they were contract employees. It is time for the residents to demand that educators be treated as the valuable center of the system that they are and must be.

Bargaining issues remain concerning middle school restructuring

May 6, 2021

 

To the School Committee and Dr. Marini:

 

We, the teachers of the middle school grades in Brookline, are writing to express our alarm at the way new models for middle school staffing are being proposed and implemented, and we demand that you bargain these changes with the BEU. Further, we insist that the school committee and central administration avoid short-term thinking about staffing and commit to retaining all existing staff – a staff that is dedicated, talented and skilled at meeting the extraordinary needs of a student body in need of intensive attention. 

 

We have readily responded to the pandemic crisis by exercising the flexibility that our administration expected of us. From full remote to hybrid, and now full in-person learning, we have transformed our teaching without adequate time in the day to do so. Like our colleagues in every other grade level, we rose to meet the challenges, handled the stress, and managed ever-changing schedules, groupings and demands. 

 

At the same time, many of us had new responsibilities added to our plate, including taking on unfamiliar teaching assignments, while adjusting ourselves to changed operation of the schools. 

 

We have also absorbed the stress of the disruption to our personal lives that these imposed changes have entailed. In addition, a significant number of us met these expectations in the face of being told we are contingent labor, that we should expect to just move on as things get back to “normal.”  

 

As we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel with regard to the pandemic, an urgent concern has arisen. We have come to understand that some school leaders want to make permanent changes that were put into place during the pandemic. 

 

As one glaring example, it has come to our attention that a new model for middle school staffing is being planned at the Baker School. We understand that this model may include requiring that teachers accept new and multiple subject-area teaching assignments at any time. We understand that discussions of similar models have begun at other schools. 

 

The implications of shifting to this type of model are a major expansion of licensure expectations of teachers and represent other major changes from current practice. In addition to diminishing the respect for teachers’ experience and expertise, moving to this model will have a serious impact on educators’ contractual rights. Some contractual concerns that arise are: job security (including seniority placement), training, evaluation and prep time. In addition, the district would be imposing a new model of schooling on educators without their professional judgement being considered in the planning. And because this model is being implemented without careful consideration of these issues, and without any meaningful staff and community input, it is our students who stand to lose the most. 

 

It is evident that part of the motivation for this shift is that it is a way to solve a perceived staffing crisis – allowing principals to shift teachers around in a “plug and play,” “just in time,” gig economy type staffing model. Employees are kept around when needed, and then let go, or shuffled around, in a continuous “lean production” management approach. This model devalues the experience, expertise and dedication of educators which will inevitably lead to serious degradation in the quality of the educational experience for children. As teachers come and go, and are shuffled around, subject-area and grade-level expertise will be greatly diminished. 

 

Therefore, the Brookline Educators Union has demanded that the district immediately cease and desist from assigning new teaching expectations related to the structure of the middle school grades until and unless proper planning is undertaken and the role of our union is respected. The BEU is our exclusive bargaining agent, and we stand with our union in calling on the Public Schools of Brookline to negotiate any and all of the changes described above, or similar changes, to the middle school teaching model. This will ensure that any changes are properly resourced and can be implemented well. We join our union leaders in demanding that the Public Schools of Brookline bring its proposal to the bargaining table as part of the current negotiations to renew the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

 

We absorbed the burden of the COVID surge after years of absorbing the burden of another surge – a thirty-five percent increase in enrollment that was met with inadequate staffing and supports.  We now refuse to absorb a staffing purge – and a dramatic change in instructional model – that views educators as interchangeable and thus as expendable. Without careful consideration and negotiation, these unprecedented changes threaten to damage our school district for years to come.   

 

Sincerely, 

 

The following Middle School Educators: 

 

  • Mark Goldner, Heath School 7-8 Science
  • Bob Miller, Heath School 6-7 Science
  • Yasameen Sharif, Baker School 6 Science 
  • Benjamin Stein, Lincoln School 7-8 ELA
  • Kathleen Conti, RLA/Lincoln School 7-8 ELA
  • Adam Weatherwax, Lincoln School 7-8 Math
  • Victoria Ridge, Heath 6-8 Spanish 
  • Christina Collins, Lincoln 6-8 Spanish
  • Megan Hegedus, Lawrence 7th-8th Grade Science
  • Marlene Goncalves, Pierce 7th Grade ELA
  • Tracy Bare, Pierce 8th Grade Science
  • Melissa London, Pierce 6th Grade Science
  • Cori MacDonald, Baker 6th Grade ELA/SS
  • Dawn Galolo, Pierce 7 Math
  • Jennifer Jordan, Driscoll 7/8 Math
  • Cecilia Costanzo, Driscoll  6-8 Spanish
  • Suzanne Raskin, Heath 7-8 Math/RLA Math Specialist
  • Meghan Lewis, Runkle School 7-8 Math
  • Chloe Hansen, Runkle School 6-7 Social Studies
  • Colleen Boyle, Runkle School 6-8 Spanish
  • Norma Gordon, District Mathematics Coach
  • Elyse Terry, Heath 6-7 Social Studies
  • Courtney Hart, Driscoll School, 7-8 ELA & 7th Grade Health
  • Kate Hollander, Lawrence 7-8 Social Studies
  • Chad Pelton, Runkle School 7-8 Science
  • Amy Kane, Florida Ruffin Ridley 7th grade ELA
  • Matthew Durant, Heath, Education Technology Specialist
  • Marilyn Yorgey-Williams, Florida Ruffin Ridley/RLA, 8th Grade Science
  • Desiree Schreck, Florida Ruffin Ridley 7th Grade Science
  • Alison Kerr, Heath and Runkle, 6th-8th grade French
  • Greg Porter, Lawrence School, 6 Social Studies
  • Brandon Chan, Lawrence School, 6 Science
  • Sue Zobel,  Lincoln School 7 – 8 Science
  • Alejandra Traub, Lincoln 6-7 Science
  • Amanda Breckner, Runkle/ FRR K-8 World Language 
  • Jenna Laib, RLA/Driscoll, Grade 6 Math
  • Matthew Goldstein, Baker School grade 6 Math
  • Emily Singer, Baker School grade 6 Math & ELA
  • Jeremy Bloch, Florida Ruffin Ridley, RLA 8th Grade Math
  • Lan Wu, Driscoll 4-8, Chinese
  • Sheila Cusack, Heath School, 7 – 8 ELA
  • Charles Deily, Lawrence School, 7-8 Math
  • Danielle Goldie, Baker School, Grade 7 Science
  • Jacqueline Hallo, Baker School Grade 8 Social Studies (RLA 8th Grade Social Studies)
  • Martha Gammie Lincoln School Grade  6 ELA, but this year 6 & 7 ELA
  • Victoria Cavanaugh, Florida Ruffin Ridley/RLA 7th Grade Math
  • Joe Mitchell, Baker School, grade 8 science
  • Courtney Martin, Baker School, grade 6 Social Studies
  • Dylan Rossi, Baker School, grade 7 Math
  • Katie Judd, Florida Ruffin Ridley School, ⅞ Learning Center 
  • Jennifer Sanders, Lawrence School, 7-8 ELA
  • Mireille Blau, Florida Ruffin Ridley School, Grade 7 Social Studies
  • Mami Sato, Lincoln School, Grades 5-7 ALC Special Education Teacher
  • Edward Fitzgerald, Lincoln School, 6th & 7th Math
  • Catherine Fischer-Mueller, Florida Ruffin Ridley School, Grade 8 Social Studies
  • Heather Pineault, Lincoln School, 6-8 French teacher
  • Eileen Pushee, Pierce School, 7 Science
  • Esther Morales, Florida Ruffin Ridley School, Grade 6-8 Spanish 
  • Susan Balogh, Baker School Grade 7 Social Studies
  • Pamela Penwarden, Baker School Grade 8 ELA
  • Marnie Weiss, Baker School Grades 6,7,8 World Language (French) and  7 Health
  • Carolyn Lattin, Pierce 8th Grade Social Studies
  • Andrew Garnett-Cook, Heath School 7-8 Social Studies
  • Rachel Hayashi, Heath School Literacy Coach
  • Kayla Hilkert, Baker School, Grade 6 Learning Center
  • Demetra Kavaltzis, RLA Grade 6 ELA
  • Douglas Tyler, RLA Grade 6 Social Studies 
  • Kailin Bixby, K-8 Literacy Specialist Baker School
  • Kristen Peterson, Baker 6/7 Special Education Teacher 
  • Shira Schwartzberg RLA/Runkle 7-8 Social Studies
  • Jessica Levasseur Florida Ruffin Ridley/RLA Grade 6-8 French
  • Andrea Spiewak, Lincoln School 6/7 Social Studies
  • Annice Kra, 8th Grade English Pierce School
  • Jesse Carson, 8th Grade Math Pierce School
  • Joshua Bett, Grade 6 Learning Center, RLA
  • Sara O’Shea, Heath School 6-7 ELA
  • Rachel Silva, Heath School 6-7 Math
  • Heather Pritchard, Driscoll School 6-7 Social Studies
  • Jane Miller, Lincoln, 6th grade Special Education
  • Lisa Ziegler-Chamblee, 8th grade Special Education Teacher, Lincoln
  • Lauren Marien, 6th grade Science RLA
  • Margaret Avakian, Lawrence School, 6th Grade ELA
  • Joeanna McPherson, Pierce, Grade 6 Math
  • Elizabeth Sullivan, Heath School 6-8 Special Education
  • Lisa Soltani, Driscoll, 6th/7th Math
  • Alec Turner, Runkle School 7-8 Social Studies 
  • Lucy Verhave, Heath School 7-8 Special Education
  • Laura Brady, Heath/Driscoll 5th and 6th grade Spanish
  • Zoë Kern, Lawrence School Spanish 4th-7th
  • Becky Paysnick, Florida Ruffin Ridley, 6th Grade Science
  • Jillian Boucher 6th grade math at Florida Ruffin Ridley
  • Caroline Tocci, 6/7 ELA at Driscoll School
  • Ayala Galton Bassett, 7th and 8th grade health, FRR / RLA
  • Kevin MacKenzie, Lawrence School, 8 Paraprofessional
  • Katie Goldring, Heath School 7-8 Heath
  • Gary Levine, RLA 7th Grade Science
  • Stephanie Goodman, Pierce 6th Grade ELA
  • Emily Follett, Pierce 7th Grade ELA
  • Helen Greeley, Pierce 6-8 Learning Center 
  • Xiaoxue Cao, Pierce and RLA 6-8 Mandarin 
  • Sarah Falvey, Pierce 7-8 Learning Center
  • Megan Burdy, Baker Art
  • Daina Yi, EL teacher grades 3-8 Driscoll

 

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