APPROVED 3/14/2023
Meeting of the NASE Executive Committee
Tuesday, February 14, 4:00
JFK – Community Room
In Attendance: (26 participants)
Sharon Carlson, Vanessa Coates-Cooney, Jennifer Hayden, Mareatha Wallace, Kimberly Bowler, Veronica Douglas, Kira Henninger, Karen Schiaffo, Paula Rigano-Murray, Kate Fontaine, Erica Lamanna, Heather Brown, Tammy Cook, Sara Simmons, Daria Steward, Ellen Brown, Helen Woods, Sara Churchill-Winsor, Laila Copperansky, Laura St. Pierre, Susan Rees, Jeromie Whalen, Ryan Parent, Deirdre Johnson, Erica Caron, Andrea Egitto
Excused Attendance:
Sandy Bombard
Andrea calls the meeting to order at 4:00pm.
Item I: Call to Order
- BSS having a meet and greet for principal candidates – 2 out of the 4 were internal candidates
- Superintendent search committee will be meeting tomorrow night (2/15)
Item II: New Business
- 11 delegates needed for MTA annual meeting at MGM Springfield April 28th
- Kira will chair this → email her if you have interest
- Possibility of having this done in an electronic form if needing to know delegates ahead of time
- Kira will chair this → email her if you have interest
- Concerns around inconsistencies with district testing of screeners and AimsWeb with whose roles is it
- Further the conversation when we change over to the new screeners and benchmarking tools
- Was the Anti-Bias Discrimination Policy shared out?
- Yes it has been shared out to members
- NHS questions around open house in lou of the department meetings (up to 90 minutes) of coming earlier for various reasons which could result in being there until 8 pm (2 hours)
- Further the conversation with Principal around what is considered voluntary and respecting time “limits” and what has been past precedence
- NASE scholarships need to form a committee to review applications/submissions
- Need NHS members to be on the committee
- Looks like there will be many applicants – do we want to go forward with adding 5 or 6 scholarships for slightly less award money? → to be discussed at the next EC meeting
- 2023 annual meeting vice president, treasurer, secretary, PR&R chair will need to have elections run on for nominees
- Kira will chair this → email her if you have interest
- MTA MA Child Grant gives money out to schools for students/families in need
- Feel free to reach out the Heather Brown with support
- Once every seven years we have 27 paid Thursdays in the year and we only get 26 pay periods this year, which will members → this will be shared out to members with notices
- This results in 4 weeks without a pay period
- Thursday, August 17th will be 26th pay of 22-23 school year
- Missing the August 31st
- Thursday, September 14th will be the 1st pay of the 23-24 school year
Item III: Secretary’s Report
- Amend 1/10/2023 EC minutes line (change of a word) from “… on behave of the Superintendent” to “…on behalf of the Superintendent”
- Amend 1/10/2023 EC minutes line from “…won the New England Educator Award” to “…named to the Wasabi Fenway Bowl Honor Roll for Educators”
- Amend 1/10/2023 EC minutes to add Sara Churchill-Winsor to excused attendance list
MOTION: to accept the secretary’s report as amended
Entertained by: Andrea
Moved by: Kate
Seconded by: Karen
Motion Approved: unanimously
Item IV: Treasurer’s report
- Present budget as amended – budget for FY23
- Trial membership for MailChimp
- Set up an information mail chain to members for a more streamlined method on upcoming meetings, important items discussed at EC meetings, ect. to personal emails
- Trial for 3-4 months to see how it works with our local and get feedback to see if this is something we want to continue into the further year
- This is about 28$ a month for the communication size that our local needs
- W2s are updated to fit to the paper size → see or contact Sharon for this new form
MOTION: to accept the treasurer’s report as amended
Entertained by: Andrea
Moved by: Karen
Seconded by: Tammy
Motion Approved: unanimously
MOTION: to move $120 for the trial for MailChimp for 4 months (remainder of the year)
Entertained by: Paula
Moved by: Sharon
Seconded by: Jeromie
Motion Approved: unanimously
Item V: NPS budget
- Members please communicate budget needs at city council meetings as well as with the mayor
- Members please communicate budget needs at the legislature level for chapter 70 funding for Northampton as well as around the Fair Share Amendment funding
- Superintendent never presented her budget in the 2/13 Budget and Property Subcommittee meeting
- Superintendent asked all principals for building budgets by Friday (2/17) before leaving for February vacation and to have communication with staff that will be affected by Thursday (2/16) before vacation
- NASE will be asking for an increase for NPS to level fund the budget – currently at 4% yet needs 7%
Item VI: School Quality Framework → postponed to 3/2023 EC meeting
Item VII: Membership drive
- NASE Brag sheet
- Encourage non-members to join NASE! Focus on our shared values rather than the scare/fear tactics for joining
Item VIII: Adjourn
MOTION: to adjourn
Entertained by: Andrea
Moved by: Karen
Seconded by: Erica
Motion Approved: unanimously
Upcoming meetings
February 28, 6:30 – School Committee Special Budget meeting
March 7, 4:00 Executive Board Meeting – Ryan Rd. Room 200
March 14, 4:00 Executive Committee Meeting – JFK Community Room – BSS provides snacks
Officer Reports
ESPs (Unit C)
Unit C: we continue to work on several disciplinary and legal issues. We attended the MTA Winter Skills Conference in Boston and attended workshops on contract language, LGBTQIA+ issues, writing effective surveys and more. Erica attended the first meeting of the Superintendent Search Committee.
Cafeteria (Unit G)
Nothing new to report
PR&R
I have been meeting with admin and members this month. Some meetings for those seeking advise about contract wording, some for member to member conflicts. I have been working with delegates to train them on Weingarten Rights and how to protect the contract in a meeting. I have advised those seeking grievances about why they can or cannot grieve certain incidents.
Membership Coordinator
- 527 NASE members for all 8 units: A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H
- 7 new members joined since our January EC meeting
- 4 were new hires and 3 were existing staff
- NHS and Leeds are leading with the most sign-ups!
- Please refer to your lists that I sent in my email on 1/28/23
- Included are new hires and existing staff in your buildings
- There are also enrollment forms with reduced dues listed
- Please check in with new and existing staff about how things are going
- Ask them about their successes and their challenges
- Discuss the benefits of NASE membership
- Hand out brag sheets and post brag sheet in break rooms
- Refer staff to the printed contract binders in break rooms
- Encourage ALL staff to know their contracts!
It’s important to get the word out about how NASE can be a powerful, collective voice, especially during this concerning budget season!
Thank you to all for your work welcoming and supporting staff and encouraging all employees to join NASE. Let me know if you have any questions.
Karen Schiaffo
NASE Membership Coordinator
RKF/RR School Nurse & Building Delegate
413-320-3608
2/14/23
Communications Coordinator
I attended the MTA Winter Skills Conference and learned about hosting the website through the MTA. This could potentially save us $150-200 per year. I worked on setting up a mailchimp account to save time when emailing membership. Currently Andrea must email membership in groups of 50 requiring 10 sends every time she communicates with us. Mailchimp also allows us to create templates for monthly newsletters, etc. Due to the size of our membership, we would incur a fee to continue the service. The website has been updated with important upcoming dates including budget meetings and NASE meeting minutes.
President’s and Vice President’s Report
This past month we finalized a few agreements with management and discussed a few pre-grievance items for several different units. We met with both the superintendent and the new NHS principal to further collaboration.
We attended the MTA regional leadership meeting in Jan. doing some brainstorming and networking with other area locals.
We also attended the initial district budget meeting with the superintendent and the ALT to continue trying to avert painful cuts. Currently the district needs to cut more than 1.1 million dollars from the budget.
The president and other officers attended the MTA Winter Skills conference in Boston.
We were able to negotiate an MOA to adjust the timeline for teacher evaluations at JFK and NHS due to the late hiring of principals at those schools. We were also able to negotiate an MOA for a stipend for the Jazz band at NHS and compensation for Unit B members that covered for the time NHS was without a principal .