Meeting of NASE Executive Committee
Minutes
The committee discusses funding for members to attend a conference.
The committee welcomes Brian Bagdon as chapter coordinator for the custodians.
The committee approves the secretary and treasurer reports.
The committee discusses how to take in funds for the NASE scholarship, including the use of a Venmo account.
The committee discusses arrangements for the MTA annual meeting on May 20 and 21.
The committee turns its attention fully to the NASE annual meeting on April 27.
Andrea offers updates from the latest rounds of negotiations.
Andrea discusses officer reports.
The committee discusses results of a survey on possible school calendar changes.
The committee addresses a few final pieces of business.
In Attendance
Andrea Egitto, Heather Brown, Sharon Carlson, Carl Mead, Sara Churchill-Winsor, Kate Fontaine, Kara Sheridan, Paula Rigano-Murray, Erica Lamanna, Maria Vega, Helen Woods, Ellen Brown, Daria Steward, Alex Peterson, Erica Caron, Michael Stavely-Hale, Laura St. Pierre, Vanessa Coates-Cooney, Kira Henninger, Jessica Lavallee, Mark Baldwin, Jeromie Whalen, Jonah Dratfield, Karen Schiaffo, Sandra Bombard, Tammy Cook, Brian Bagdon
Minutes
Note: Remarks attributed to meeting participants are approximations, not quotations.
Andrea calls the meeting to order at 4:01.
FIRST TOPIC: MTA ESP conference
Paula:
We can send up to four people to the MTA ESP conference on the Cape. It’s April 1st and 2nd.
MOTION
to reimburse the cost of registration ($30) for the MTA ESP Conference for up to four people.
Moved by Paula.
Seconded by Carl.
Discussion:
Sharon:
We have the money.
Kira:
Could we get mileage covered as well?
Andrea:
Hm! Maybe through the district?
Paula:
I will add that MTA is asking that chapters limit their delegation to four members due to Covid.
Andrea:
It might also be good for us to get some non-ESP ESPs to go as well. (MTA defines ESP as clerical, custodial, bus driver, cafeteria workers, and so on.)
Maria:
Do you have any idea what topics are their for clerical?
Paula:
I’ll get back to you, but I’m on the MTA ESP committee, and we made sure that it wasn’t all geared toward paraprofessionals.
MOTION APPROVED.
NEXT TOPIC: Welcome, Brian
Andrea:
Welcome, Brian, to your role as chapter coordinator for the custodial chapter.
Helen:
There’s a custodian at my building who was interested in serving as a delegate.
NEXT TOPIC: reports for approval
MOTION
to accept the secretary’s report as emailed.
Moved by Erica C.
Seconded by Carl.
Discussion:
Heather:
Did we say that we would not have the discussion notes in the publicly posted minutes?
Carl:
I don’t believe we ever discussed it.
Erica C:
I don’t see anything in the last month’s minutes.
Andrea:
Perhaps we have something further back?
MOTION APPROVED, one abstention.
Sharon:
Starting balance: 109,814.65.
Dues collected February: 37,035.47.
In reserves: 74,213.26.
Fees: 169.62.
Stipend checks: 160.85.
MTA/NEA took out: 28,687.71.
What remains: 43,618.58.
Andrea asks about the ESP conference.
Sharon:
You’ll see a $350 check at the top for the new teacher liaison and you’ll also see the conference expenditures in the middle of this spreadsheet.
For the annual meeting, I can also have this go through line-item by line-item in the budget.
Karen asks clarifying question. Sharon confirms the understanding.
Sharon:
Also, I want to commend Karen for doing an excellent job because month-to-month, the amount the MTA and NEA take out is never the same.
MOTION
to approve the treasurer’s report.
Moved by Karen.
Seconded by Kira.
MOTION APPROVED.
NEXT TOPIC: scholarship fund
Andrea:
There was interest in ways that people could contribute to our scholarship funds. People are too burned out for a fundraiser, but maybe we could run a collection within our own buildings.
Leslie recommended that maybe we could ask local businesses (not eateries) if they could put out a can.
Heather:
I’ve wondered if we can put the can in public because it’s a NASE thing? If we need to have it happen at the schools?
Karen:
Maybe we could put boxes in our staff rooms?
Andrea:
Sure, or maybe someone would bring those around to faculty meetings.
Helen:
Does NASE have a venmo or anything like that? Because it could be as simple as that.
Andrea:
I know we tried that last year. And with the business account, Venmo takes money out of those transactions.
We could have people volunteer their venmo accounts and then have those people write checks to NASE.
Kara:
Could we use GoFundMe? I know the schools have policies against that, but maybe we could do that.
Tammy:
I know people might have concerns about just leaving the money lying around unsupervised.
Erica C:
I’m happy to make a flyer.
Sara:
I have a paypal, venmo, and cash app that I am willing to use for JFK.
Andrea:
What about all the schools?
Sara:
Sure, I can do it for all schools.
Andrea:
Can you have the transaction signify that it’s specifically for NASE?
Heather:
Can you have your name come up as NASE so it’s clearly the right thing?
Kara:
Could we have Sara take a printout of these things for tax purposes? Could Sara bring something to Sharon?
Kira:
I feel uncomfortable using people’s personal bank accounts for this sort of series of transactions.
Karen:
Could we also have options? For those of us who don’t use venmo?
Vanessa:
Is it possible to use the old Venmo that Emma had, if that’s connected to the NASE bank account?
Andrea:
Can we do a test run? Someone donate a dollar and Sharon see if it shows up in the bank?
Carl:
That’s not how venmo works.
Jeromie:
I will donate whatever the venmo service fee is, so that we still get those donations in full.
Sara and Erica will connect with Emma to have the NASE Venmo set up for us to use to fund the NASE Scholarship.
NEXT TOPIC: MTA annual meeting
Andrea:
We need a nominations chair to help with the chapter elections and MTA Annual Meeting delegate nominations.
Heather:
MTA Annual Meeting is May 20-21.
Erica C:
What is that?
Sharon:
It’s where we vote on the budget. We have elections for President, Vice President, Board of Trustees.
Heather:
The voting takes place mostly on Saturday.
Helen:
Would it be silly to go just on Friday?
Andrea:
If we don’t have a full delegation, I’d say, yeah, go for it. But if we’re able to get our full eleven voting members, you might not want to take that spot because that’s one of our votes.
Paula:
It’s fun. And there’s a lot of vendors and whatnot.
Kira:
I recently went to the School Psych Conference at the Hines Convention Center, and that was a rejuvenating experience.
Heather:
Plenty of good networking to be done.
Andrea:
But now, we do need a nominations chair. They’ll help us make ballots if we need them. They’ll collect the names, keep track of it.
Kira:
Yes, I’ll be glad to keep track of nominations.
Andrea:
Just bear in mind, if you’re interested in running for secretary, you would not be able to serve as nominations chair.
Karen:
If she decides to run, I will be nominations chair. (Which is fine because Karen is an appointed officer, not an elected one)
Sharon:
If people wouldn’t mind writing in my name for NEA region A.
NEXT TOPIC: NASE Annual Meeting
MOTION
that NASE hold its Annual Meeting in person.
Moved by Paula.
Seconded by Carl.
Discussion:
Karen:
Is there any difference between in-person and remote attendance-wise?
Kate:
It was such a problem getting a quorum last time.
Sharon:
I think it’ll be a big one because it’s a bargaining year.
Heather:
I wonder if we could make that SVAHS cafeteria would be available again?
Kira:
Do we provide food at this? That might help people attend more.
Andrea:
We have in the past.
MOTION APPROVED. Heather will talk to SVAHS about getting a room.
NEXT TOPIC: negotiation updates
Andrea:
Not much to update regarding NPS negotiations. SVAHS as well.
Is anyone interested in meeting with some Amherst and South Hadley union folx?
Helen is in.
I’ll put this out to our PALs as well.
And if you know people in your building who would be up for helping along these lines, they don’t have to be a part of this committee.
NEXT TOPIC: officer reports
Andrea:
Sorry I did not get my report onto the agenda. Other officers may have also been overwhelmed this past month.
Carl:
Could we schedule the secretary or communication officer to take dictation from officers rather than have them have to sit down and write it out?
Andrea:
We used to do something along those lines at the Board meeting. Perhaps we could do that again.
NEXT TOPIC: school calendar changes
Helen:
I saw we were going to talk about the school calendar possible changes?
Andrea:
Thank you for reminding me!
People were concerned about how late this year and next year might end.
26% voted not to change things.
9%, 38%, and 20% said some variation on moving it earlier.
Shortening Feb break: 83% said no.
At elementary schools, 63% supported moving to two report cards, if conferences were moved back to October. So we did accept that proposal based on the survey.
Helen:
If it’s a done deal, then it’s a done deal. But I was wondering if PreK and maybe K – PreK hasn’t had as much time with the children for an October conference?
Andrea:
Maybe, but it seems unlikely they’d get the half-days just for those two grades.
Kira:
I think it’s more that the caregivers are interested in meeting the teachers, not being able to get a report from the teachers.
Andrea:
Sure, but PreK and K have the orientation before that, so they’ve already met us. That changes things.
NEXT TOPICS: wrapping up and mask survey
Sara:
I was hoping that I could catch you and maybe officers could stick around after.
Erica L:
I was going to ask if Karen could stick around for a super quick question.
Erica C:
I was wondering about the mask survey. What’s going on with that? So many districts have let their requirements lapse. Is there an update?
Andrea:
I will share our results. And I know on Thursday, the Board of Health is voting on that. I expect the School Committee will follow soon after.
69% were opposed to lifting the mandate two weeks ago.
40% selected none of the above when options were mid-March, April, or May. Some just wanted an option for “when the Health Board says it.”
41% are in favor of keeping masks until the end of the year, but 59% were opposed to that.
Karen, anything to add on the health side of things.
Karen:
The numbers are trending down. I suspect there will be a change.
School Committee will follow after that.
MOTION
to adjourn.
Moved by Kira.
Seconded by Helen.MOTION APPROVED. Meeting adjourns 5:26.