Meeting of the NASE Executive Committee
Tuesday, October 8, 2024 4:00
Community Room, JFK Middle School
APPROVED 11/12/2025
In Attendance: (33 participants)
Vanessa Coates-Cooney, Harry Wallace, Helen Woods-Blake, Kristin Thibedau, Raymond Paquette, Jessica Lavallee, Kevin Schmith, Xristina Warren, Cyndie Ouimette, Ellen Brown, Mareatha Wallace, Jennifer Hayden, Joshua Katz, Erica Lamanna, Kate Fontaine, Kim Bowler, Paula Rigano-Murray, Sara Churchill-Winsor, Danielle Kowal, Carrie Foley, Jamie Lawrence, Ryan Parent, Madyson Mackenzie, Daria Steward, Sandy Bombard, Jeromie Whalen, Sara Simmons, Karen Schiaffo, Jake Gallant, Laila Copperansky, Tammy LaChance, Holly Taylor, Brian Bagdon,
Excused:
Erica Caron, Laura St. Pierre, Andrea Egitto, Tammy Cook,
Heather calls the meeting to order at 4:01 pm.
Item I: Call to Order & Quick check in
- Saying hello to new delegates/members
Item II: Secretary’s Report with officer reports
- Amendments: spelling of two members names in attendance portion of the document
MOTION: to accept the Secretary’s Report as amended
Entertained by: Heather
Moved by: Kate
Seconded by: Mareatha
Motion Approved: unanimously
Item III: Treasurer’s Report
MOTION: to table Treasurer’s Report until November EC meeting
Entertained by: Heather
Moved by: Kate
Seconded by: Jennifer
Motion Approved: unanimously
Item IV: Plan for meetings/ negotiations:
- NHS = Wednesday, October 9th during PSAT time (Heather, Kate, Paula)
- RR = Thursday, October 10th during lunches (Andrea)
- JFK = Tuesday, October 15th @ 10:30-12:30 (Andrea) & afterschool (Kate)
- BSS = Wednesday, October 16th @ 10:20-12:10 (Andrea) & afterschool (Kate)
- JSS = Wednesday, October 23rd @ 10:30-12:30 (Andrea) & afterschool (Kate)
- Leeds = Tuesday, October 22nd @ 10:25-12:15 (Andrea)
- Read through your contracts and think of ideas to change/add/delete
- Think about alternatives for pay besides the pay raises
- If you can’t attend the listening tour meeting, communicate your thoughts with another person, email, text, ect.
- Please share this information out with your buildings
Item V: New Business
- An unsolved issue from last year, the contract states 6 hours 10 minutes but concerns when to pick up students in the morning/drop off in afternoon and have responsibilities for students. This is past practice and within principals rights to do
- Karen has packets for the new hires. Check your new hires list from Karen
- The paraeducators’ hiring process seems to be delayed by 1-2 weeks. HR is working at half staff so the legal/processing takes time. Administration can reach out to HR.
- How many hours are in the sink bank? The max is 15,000 and when below they pull out extra. Andrea has the exact hours update.
- Requesting a day off after a holiday is taking a long time about the response. There has been no response in a few months – even though this has been requested additional months in advance.
- The new bridge road affordable housing (was previously a nursing home) is taking applications for 71 families. How can our schools be affected by this new building and the needs within the buildings? Is the city ready to take on this new influx?
- HR is for the whole city, in the past the schools used to have their own HR department. Things are getting bottlenecked and impacting the schools.
- Concerns about the letter about the lack of qualifications to paraeducators. The union reps knew about this after the fact that letters went out. An email was sent to the superintendent yet has not been responded back to. The letter was poorly written, with no guidance on next steps, and how it was sent out via email/on a Friday.
Item VI: Medicare for All
- Guests = Shelley Berkowitz. John from MassCARE (Massachusetts Care for Single Payers)
- We (NASE members) are members from affliction through MTA
- Medicare for All is in our legislature but has not been passed yet
- To win this bill, recruiting/replacing legislative reps who are anti single payer
- Let’s focus on how much we can save in Northampton that could be spent on schools
- Could save Northampton about 7 million dollars a year!
- Jerry Freedman, economist working at UMASS Amherst and member of MTA, prices the trust fund by knowing current spending on premiums, subtracting waste, and considering shortages. This will be about 30% less than the current budget. Details are on the website
- Having school boards being in favor of this bill is important and good next steps
Item VII: Adjourn
MOTION: to adjourn
Entertained by: Heather
Moved by: Kate
Seconded by: Daria
Motion Approved: unanimously
Upcoming meetings:
November 5, 4:00 Ryan Road – NASE Executive Board
NASE meeting with superintendent- rescheduling both Oct. & Nov. at the request of Dr. Bonner
November 12, 4:00 JFK – NASE Executive Committee Meeting
Officer Reports:
Teachers (Unit A)
Continuing to respond to budget related concerns including staffing. Working on MOA. Working on safety related concerns at BSS. working on ULPs.
Admin (Unit B)
Taking the vacation buy back grievance to level 3.
ESPs (Unit C)
Dealing with audit on paraeducators credentials. Working with MTA to remedy this. Had 3 disciplinary issues to deal with. Working on MOA to bring internship coordinator at NPS into Unit C. Still working on Open Meeting Law violation – extension was granted for 10 more days.
SVAHS (Unit D)
Met with the new field rep.
Clerical: (Unit E)
Working on staffing issues at the elementary school.
Custodian (Unit F)
Hired a Leed at JFK. Posting the opening to close on the 4th and hoping to fill this.
Cafeteria (Unit G)
Trying to hire two additional staff part time – 1 at NHS and JFK. Otherwise fully staffed, just in need for lunch periods.
SVAHS (Unit H)
Nothing to report at this time.
PR&R
Nothing to report at this time.
Membership Coordinator
19 New members at this time. Getting a new hire list out is being sent out in the future.
Communications Coordinator
Nothing to report at this time.
President’s and Vice President’s Report
Attended regional MTA legislative issues meeting last month. Spearheaded a regional letter to legislators about issues we care about in Western Mass. This month attending a union alliance meeting around funding and tools for bargaining. Met with new MTA field rep, Martín. Trying to negotiate multiple MOAs for multiple issues. Working on staffing issues. Still addressing and working on the vote of no confidence. Trying to meet monthly with the Superintendent but she has canceled the next two months with no rescheduling dates offered. Went to a presidents’ meeting in Framingham and presented to the MTA presidents about our budget fight. Been working on yes vote 2.
CAT TEAM – volunteers
John Seamon- Ignalis – JFK
Mareatha Wallace JFK
Erica Caron JFK
Jenny Mae Viets NHS
Jess Lavalle NHS
Sue Sullivan NHS
Michele Bernhard NHS
Jake Gallant (NHS para)
Karen Hidalgo NHS
Ray Paquette – NHS
Beth Monopoli – BSS
Jen Lucine-JSS
Huimin Wan- JSS
Sara Simmons RR
Cori Carey – RR
Lisa LaBeau- RR
Katie Dell’Olio – Leeds
Tyler Holter – NHS