Meeting of the NASE Executive Committee
Tuesday, September 10, 2024 4:00
Community Room, JFK Middle School
APPROVED 10/8/2024
In Attendance: (34 participants)
Vanessa Coates-Cooney, Sandy Bombard, Harrison Wallace, Ryan Parent, Jennifer Hayden, Xristina Warren, Kevin Schmith, Tammy LaChance, Kristin Thibedau, Kim Bowler, Ellen Brown, Danielle Kowal, Sara Simmons, Laura St. Pierre, Karen Schiaffo, Erica Caron, Mareatha Wallace, Sara Churchill-Winsor, Paula Rigano Murray, Kate Fontaine, Jesicca Lavallee, Heather Brown, Andrea Egitto, Erica Lamanna, Carrie Foley, Brian Bagdon, Jake Gallant, Madyson Mackenzie, Daria Steward, Helen Woods-Blake, Laila Copperansky, Jeromie Whalen, Emily Dumais, Ray Paquette,
Excused:
Jamie Lawrence, Holly Taylor,
Andrea calls the meeting to order at 4:03 pm.
Item I: Call to Order & Welcome
- Introduce ourselves since we have many new delegates and a new officer
Item II: New Business
- Will be having a regular Superintendent meeting with Officers every first Wednesday of the month
- Vacancies in the committee
- BSS: 1 additional position open
- Leeds: full slate
- JSS: 1 additional position open
- JFK: full slate
- Ryan Road: 1 additional position open
- NHS: 2 unknown position, if these unknown are continuing then full slate
- SVAHS: full slate
- At large: there are openings
- How do we get unions to talk about national health care for everyone?
- Heather will be bringing this to MTA
- Does anyone evaluate administrators for their standards and transparency around this?
- The superintendent should be evaluating principals
- BSS needs another reading interventionist and this position seems to be problematic
- Superintendent stated that principals make decisions about title 1 funds, only have .8 reading (noted that should be going up to full time) and have a full time math interventionist
- Title 1 questions: Who oversees the title 1 money? How much title 1 money does each building qualify for? How much money of what is being allocated for title 1 money is the building actually getting? What is the gap between what is being given and what is supposed to be
- New voices speaking at School Committee is important → speak on how this school year is affected
- Most class sizes at JFK are at 25 with no additional supports, this results in teachers wanting to leave the district/quit
- There are more classes over 25 students, data uses the average class sizes
- Invite school committee members to come and see the reality
- Parents are willing to read comments from staff members at public comment at school committee meetings
- At the PD antiemetics presentation with 3 police in the building and officers in the auditorium in plain clothes as well as with heavily armed officers, this was unknown and uncomfortable, concerns with SROs coming back into buildings
- If we use more than the allotted sick time, can we just not be paid for the day that we are out when over the sick time?
- JFK paraeducator evaluation binder is not being communicated about its use and value accurately, needs to be communicated about what this is as a organizational tool → this is just a suggestion and not an evaluation piece
- JFK new schedule is very problematic for teachers and students, is causing chaos for scheduling and providing special education services, JFK building wants to go back to the original schedule because Aspen can’t go back to it unless someone from Aspen comes in to fix it which will take money that we do not have → Kate will handle this with JFK staff
- iReady → 4/5th grade special education teachers needs to now utilize a second platform for IEP progress monitoring, usernames and password access was not given until last week, the amount of time to give this assessment takes about double to triple the amount, some teachers do not have access to this platform, does not compare to abilities and previous data from AimsWeb
Item III: Secretary’s Report
MOTION: to accept the Secretary’s Report
Entertained by: Andrea
Moved by: Mareatha
Seconded by: Sara
Motion Approved: unanimously
Item IV: Treasurer’s report
- This looks very transparent and clear to follow
- Moving towards having a full electronic binder
MOTION: to accept the Treasurer’s Report
Entertained by: Andrea
Moved by: Jennifer
Seconded by: Mareatha
Motion Approved: unanimously
Item V: Plan for meetings/negotiations
- Plan a listening tour to each building
- If ideas are coming to you around negotiations please start a list
- Please keep in mind not every single item will not be able to go into negotiations and
- Hoping to have open negotiations again this year, only negotiating members can speak at the table
- HOMEWORK: start a list for ‘wish list’ items for negotiations
- HOMEWORK: think about the best time for a listening time in your building for ideally an hour block
Item VI: Officer Reports
- Please read at the end of the agendas and please feel free to ask questions to your officers
Item VII: Adjourn
MOTION: to adjourn
Entertained by: Andrea
Moved by: Sara
Seconded by: Jennifer
Motion Approved: unanimously
Upcoming meetings
October 1, 4:00 Ryan Road – NASE Executive Board
October 2, 3:45 NASE meeting with superintendent
October 8, 4:00 JFK – NASE Executive Committee Meeting
Officer Reports
Teachers (Unit A)
Responding to the nonresponse to the vote of no confidence. Beginning to address PD. concerns around lack of staffing large elementary school class sizes, unfinished schedules at high school, vacant positions with no applicants for, and large classroom sizes. Inequities around classroom sizes.
Admin (Unit B)
Got an extension until September 5th about vacation but back that was not honored by the district. Negotiating MOA for associate principal.
ESPs (Unit C)
COVID vaccine mandates that are affecting paras to be hired. Unhappy communication around the antisemitism PD with police presence.
SVHS (Unit D)
Most vacancies seemed to be filled at this time. Nothing to report at this time.
Clerical: (Unit E)
Been working on equitable hours for clerical members for unpaid lunches.
Custodian (Unit F)
Looking to hire a lead night at JFK and another member to be out for a potential month or so at JFK.
Cafeteria (Unit G)
No open positions at this time. Nothing to report at this time.
SVHS (Unit H)
Nothing to report at this time.
PR&R
Nothing to report at this time.
Membership Coordinator
Ten processed new members and eight in the process.
Communications Coordinator
Nothing to report at this time.
President’s and Vice President’s Report
Dealing with budget issues, working towards a resolution for the vote of no confidence, meeting with Superintendent and Mayor over the summer, monthly meetings are scheduled with the Superintendent at her office, attending MTA regional President’s meeting on Sept. 12
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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
Ty Holter – NHS