Agawam Education Association
Executive Board Meeting
November 17th, 2017
- Lisa Bruno (for Tom Denton) called the meeting to order @ 4:09 PM.
- Teacher speak time– Teacher speak time was made available however no teachers were present to speak.
- Acceptance of Secretary’s Report– A motion was made to accept the Secretary’s Report and was passed unanimously.
- Acceptance of Treasurer’s Report– A motion was made to accept the Treasurer’s Report and was passed unanimously.
- President’s/Executive Director’s Report–
- Joe Clark – Lambert and Pryor Insurance Company
- Born and raised in Agawam, went through the schools
- Business is located on Springfield Street in Agawam
- Personal insurance – car and home
- Can provide advice, come into the schools whenever is convenient
- May also meet at the office
- Left business cards and email to contact
- Will review existing plan to discuss if coverage was fair
- Kelsey Sleet – MTA
- Provided information to attendees
- How many have head of the upcoming Supreme Court Janis decision?
- Case going to be decided on before June 2018
- Case will make membership in unions voluntary
- Agency option in the union will be removed
- It is likely that the decision will be in favor of the plaintiff due to a conservative Supreme Court
- Work with the MTA to develop a strong network of communication to build the nation
- Increase understanding of what the local and state union levels are responsible for
- Remind staff of union accomplishments
- Use the communication trees we have in each building already
- Part of the campaign is to make sure that we have accurate membership lists
- Who and where our members are
- Make maps of the different buildings in the district
- Building charts with point people
- The person has a grouping of people they are responsible for
- Replicable system of organization across the district
- Research shows that when more members are talked to their union is more likely to stay part of the organization
- Bring a strong collective as a local
- A question was raised about what would happen if people chose to leave the union, will the union be responsible for protecting staff?
- If the membership falls below 50%, the union will be decertified
- This also means that the teachers contract will be void
- As a result, people who stay in will be affected
- A description of the difference between full members and agency fee members was provided
- The significant change will be the loss of the agency fee
- Right to Work will happen in the state of Massachusetts in public sector unions
- Has occurred in 28 states
- No obligation for the employer to bargain with their employees
- In the 28 states, do we have data to discuss how well off those teachers are?
- Data will be provided to Lisa Bruno in order to share with members
- Assistance can be provided at individual buildings if necessary
- ***Kelsey*** is here to work with us
- Can come in to communicate with staff during non teaching times
- Ask the administrator before setting up a date
- What does the administration thin about this potential change?
- The answer was unknown at this time
- Lisa and Tom will bring this up at the Superintendent round table discussion
- Is there anything we can do to influence this decision?
- What we an do is push deep member engagement in order to counteract the results of the decision
- Will these changes affect retirement for union members?
- The answer is yes
- Teachers unions have been impacted and more senior teachers have been let go
- If over 50% of the employees want to stay unionized the representation will remain
- The local level will have to create a way of processing the deductions
- A question was raised about the two separate contracts from Unit A and Unit B
- A follow up with Jason will provide further information
- Provided information to attendees
- VP Reports-
- High School: The VP was not available
- Trouble with the special education department PD
- During the last PD there was no special education option
- Admin let them know that they can attend a content area PD
- There is still no special education CCF, they have assistant CCFs
- Intermediate:
- Concerns about special education meetings before held during the school day continue to be an issue
- Staff are leaving during regular school hours
- This was discussed at the last superintendents meeting
- They agreed to offer a 2:15 and 3:15 time slot
- There are currently 3 meetings throughout the year
- Special education teachers are not required to stay after school and attend department meetings
- Why do the rest of the staff have to attend department meetings each month after school on their own time?
- It may be beneficial to have someone who speaks for the special education teachers, select a CCF for the varying levels
- A request was made to provide information to Tom and Lisa
- What value is coming from these meetings?
- Concerns about special education meetings before held during the school day continue to be an issue
- Elementary: Austin Kimball was not available
- Teachers room is being used by staff and students, no space
- Nowhere to do testing or run a small groups
- Expressed concerns about this at the Superintendents meeting
- This may be addressed to the building principal
- Building based issue
- Tech Communications Coordinator Report- The coordinator was not available to speak
- Rep Rap- was not held
- Membership Coordinator–
- Pam believes she has all of the MTA materials
- Please send any missing materials after Thanksgiving
- Granger and Clark are still finalizing their list
- When finished, please send to Pam Rivers after Thanksgiving
- Sent something to ECC, no building rep at this time
- Unit B Coordinator-
- Old Business–
- Doering MCAS analysis issue
- The data cannot be analyzed during our own time
- Homework cannot be given to staff
- People have received more requests to input data
- In place of the PLC the data was analyzed during time after school
- Data results have to be input onto Google Docs
- We were told it was only minimal information to add to At A Glance
- There is a greater need at the elementary level because they do not have Plus Portals
- Using teachers to sub without pay by moving preparation periods
- If prep is taken away they have to pay and cannot take at another time
- Can use for meetings
- Teachers will have to tell secretary if it their prep
- Question, we have a duty period, can a meeting be held during SLT and switch duty and prep?
- Still get your prep but don’t need to do your duty?
- Cannot take you off duty to go to a meeting
- The district takes that they have cleaned house with subs and in the process of interviewing
- Doering building subs were out at one point
- There is also an issue at the high school
- Use of prep time to meet with principal regarding evaluation
- Lisa will look further into the contractual language
- Teachers not able to work together at Granger
- Not a union issue and therefore do not need union representation
- This conversation is different than the conversation that took place at the Superintendents meeting
- The principal refused to meet with the staff together
- The staff who felt that they were bullied wanted to meet with the principal together
- The principal state that they had to come in alone
- At the Superintendents meeting this issue was discussed
- This need to be dealt with at the building level
- Staff were offered a transfer to a different classroom and refused
- The administrator made it clear that there was nothing in the contract to involve the union
- Paraprofessional sitting on the professional development committee
- Paraprofessionals are expected to attend the offerings in the district catalog, typically content based on whatever teacher you work with
- Any issues where paraprofessionals are told there is no space should be brought to the attention of the AEA
- New Business–
- Paraprofessional who works in a special education classroom, son broke his leg
- Needs to leave by 2:10 to pickup her son
- Forced to take a half day by central office and the administrator
- Not always providing a sub while the staff is taking half days
- Normal work day ends at 3:30PM and needs to leave at 2:10PM
- This paraprofessional has very specific IEP needs to attends to
- Lisa will discuss this matter with Tom
- Ask the district to provide a sub that can offer the IEP services
- Clarification requested
- Wondering about leaving early or coming in late
- Robinson allows 45mins-1hour as long as you have coverage
- This started years ago when people were having to take half days for a short amount of time
- In our contract language it states about emergency coverage without pay
- This seems to be being misconstrued as expected and it is not
- A staff person asked for 5 minutes at the end of the day and the principal made her put in ½ day
- Committee reports:
- Super Committee/Evaluation– meeting on Monday at 3:30PM
- Grievance– Chair was not present
- Political Education–
- Social–
- T shirts are still available
- $270 raised
- 31 people have signed up for the 25 week club
- Salary–
- Unit A- no news
- Unit B-
- Lemanski and Laurie McCaslin have met in regards to the MOA language for longevity
- Motivation for wanting to clarify the language
- Have come to a mutual agreement, Laurie has not shared this with Tom and Lisa and needs to share with the building reps
- A retired paraprofessional may be effected if the MOA language is not signed
- A recommendation was made that teachers bring someone along to these meetings
- Concerns about the threatening comments being made about pay during these meetings
- Election–
- Introduced of the new Doering rep
- Scholarship–
- Received a check for $302 from the high school reunion in 1967
- Gail Dion donated the money to the scholarship committee
- Lisa will bring this up at the January meeting
- Some form of acknowledgement for the contribution
- Constitution- no news
- Insurance– no news
Meeting adjourned @ 5:43PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Karen Albano, Secretary
Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 16, 2018.