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DECEMBER 2007 NEWSLETTER VISIT US ON OUR NEW WEBSITE: dyrsaa.massteacher.org Check out our new website for pictures from recent meetings! December is always such a busy time of the year for all of us. Not only are we dealing with students and work issues but also many of us are trying to do holiday shopping and cooking. The stress at this time of the year is huge and I hope that all of you will try to find the time to enjoy the holidays. Spend time with family and friends and try not to think of anything to do with work! Our Holiday Party is shaping up nicely. We presently have over 40 members who have returned their reservation with $20.00. The menu for the evening is: International Cheese Display Classic Caesar Salad Homemade Rolls Braised Short Ribs of Beef Oven Roasted Salmon Chicken Cape Cod Seasonal Vegetables and Potato Assorted Desserts Coffee and Tea Call Sue Barczak at the Baker School today if you are interested as we must give the restaurant a head count ASAP. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ After the first of the year Mary Ann Mulhern, Vice-President, and I would like to schedule individual building meetings, our hope is to visit all schools during the month of January. These meetings would take the place of a monthly general meeting. Due to our work schedules we are available at 7 AM and at 4:30 PM. We may also be available for meetings at 6 PM but would want some guarantee that members would attend at this time. We would like to know when the members in each building would be available to meet - time and date. Would the Building Representatives please canvas the members in their building and let me know when building members would like to meet? Meeting dates/times are on a first come, first serve basis so don’t wait to look to let me know what is best for your building. January 18th MaryAnn Mulhern and I will travel to New York City for the weekend to attend the Northeast Regional NEA meeting. We are very happy to tell you that the NEA and the MTA will cover the full cost of this trip. This is a first for us and we are looking forward to taking four workshops on very important issues that affect all of our members. IMPORTANTOn Tuesday, November 13th Meri Colbert, Early Childhood/SPED Assistant, and I attended an MTA collective bargaining training. We learned a great deal and both of us are planning to attend the follow-up training in February. One thing they stressed is to do our homework and with that in mind it is now time for us to collect the names of those interested in being on the 2008 Negotiating Committee. We need time to collect data and put reports together and we need time to get the members of this team trained in the procedures that will be used. There is a very dry book called “Getting to Yes” that needs to be read by all committee members and there are many hours of research to be done before we can get to the table. At the training session, the MTA made it clear to us that we must stress to all members that volunteering for this committee will require a great deal of time and work. There will be hours of research such as; doing comparisons with other Districts, collecting biographies of school committee members and even looking at the town financial reports. We will need to develop a bargaining strategy and we will need to look at the needs and priorities of our members and we will need to look at political influences such as overrides, and upcoming elections. Before adding your name to the ballot list you should be aware there might be times during the process when we will have three or four meetings a month. Once elected to the committee attendance at all training sessions and all meetings is required. In addition, I can’t give you a time line, but once we get to the table it could take a few weeks to months of meetings before we have a new agreement. You should also be aware this might require some all day Saturday meetings. The time that members will give to this committee is great, but I believe members would find the rewards are also great. In past years we have begged members to be on this committee and an election was not necessary as the Executive Board appointed those interested. This time around we believe we will have many more members volunteering then the seven positions available. For this reason as stated in our by-laws we will hold an election in February for this Committee. We will put a ballot together with all the names of members wishing to be part of this committee and we will make sure all of you receive a copy. The voting will be done at the meeting as our by-laws state in Article I, Section 2 “the seven (7) members of the Negotiating Committee shall be elected by a majority vote of the general membership”. The contract continues with Article X, Section 1 “the word majority shall be interpreted to mean the simple majority of those members present and voting”. If by some chance we are wrong and we don’t have more then seven members volunteering for this committee the Executive Board will appoint those interested, however, we hope this doesn’t happen and that many of you will take on this challenging work. If you are interested in having your name placed on the ballot for this very important committee, please let me know in writing. Please include the following:
To have your name added to the ballot I must have all names by January 10th. You should also plan on attending the election meeting to be held in February. Please send the above information to: Karen Beauchemin Ezra H. Baker School or email to beauch@comcast.net We are working with Meg Secatore, MTA Communications, to develop a survey regarding issues to take to the negotiating table. This survey will be posted on our new website, dyrsaa.massteacher.org in the very near future. Once it is ready we will notify all members and ask that each of you take the time complete it. We need to hear from you, this will be your one chance to tell us what you would like to see discussed at the table. Once members have been notified that the survey has been posted we ask that you take the time to complete it. The MTA will collect all of the information and present us with a complete report. We will use this information to decide on issues to bargain. If you do not have a home computer please visit a local library to use a computer or ask a co-worker to enter your suggestions, please make sure they use your personal information. We will send a copy of the survey to all Building Representatives so members may review the form before completing it.
Did you know that our members can apply for reimbursement of up to $400.00 upon satisfactory completion of a course! The Director of Fiscal Affairs (Joseph Cucinotta) and one of our membes Sandra Cashen will evaluate course requests based on the relevance of the course to the members current position. The final grade for the course must be at least a C or better to be considered satisfactory and evidence of the grade must be submitted in order to process the reimbursement. No member shall receive reimbursement for more than one course per fiscal year. If a member registers for a noncredit class that costs less than $100.00 the course limitation may be waived. Course reimbursement does not apply to graduate level courses. Each fiscal year we have a maximum total cost for reimbursement of $4,000.00. To our knowledge no one applied for reimbursement last year. If you are taking courses, please contact Mr. Cucinotta’ office at 508-398-7610 and ask that the course notification form be sent to you. This form must be completed before you take the course. *********************************************************************************************************************** At this time I would also like to let you know that the present Board of Directors will run for office again for the 2008-2009 school year. This does not mean that if you are interested in any of the positions or if you believe we aren’t doing a good job representing the members, that you shouldn’t add your name to the list of those running. We will hold officer elections at our May meeting. The present Board members are: Karen Beauchemin, President MaryAnn Mulhern, Vice-President Tara Holt, Secretary Suzy Meyer, Treasurer Karen Mauro, Member at Large From time to time there has been discussions around the start time of meetings, parties, etc. We hear from those that get out of work at 2:30P.M., 3:30P.M. and 4:00 PM that they don’t want to come back for a 6:00 PM meeting. And we hear that Daycare members want meetings at 6:00 PM. When we have held 6:00 PM meetings attendance was very poor and many of the Daycare workers did not attend. So our question to all members is: When would you like to see us start our meetings? Email me at beauch@comcast.net with your thoughts. . I recently have had conversations with Mrs. Woodbury about the use of Unpaid Other Leave and once again I find it necessary to ask you to use this type of leave wisely. From these conversations I believe that in the very near future we will see all requests for Unpaid Leave denied. I also believe that during the next round of negotiations we will see language changes in this section of our contract and I don’t believe these changes will favor our members as Administration see the present use of this type of leave as excessive. Unpaid Other Leave is not for vacation, or extended vacation. Administration has stated that it is critical for employees to be present at work unless they are ill or have a personal matter that cannot be handled during a school day. Since the school year is only 180 days, there is ample time provided for vacation and other business. Everyone is important and we are all interdependent on each other to do the best job we can. Whether you are one on one hour per day Duty Assistant or work full time the District relies on you to be at your job everyday. In order for this District to operate at its best, we all need to work during our scheduled work time. **************************************************************************************************************************** SCHOLARSHIP
********************************************************************************************************************** I hope to see you at our holiday party on December 6th. I am looking forward to spending time with co-workers, good food and lots of fun! See you at the Seaview Restaurant, starting at 5:30 PM. Buffet dinner will be served starting at 6:30 PM. Karen Beauchemin, DYRSAA President |