Meeting of the NASE Executive Board

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Room 200, Ryan Road Elementary School

APPROVED 10/3/2023

Click here to download

In Attendance: (11 participants)

Andrea Egitto, Karen Schiaffo, Paula Rigano-Murray, Vanessa Coates-Cooney, Erica Lamanna, Sara Churchill-Winsor, Kim Bowler, Brian Badgon, Kate Fontaine, Cyndie Ouimette, Heather Brown,

 

Andrea calls the meeting to order at 4:05 pm.

 

Item I: Call to Order and New Business

• Leeds OT doing 3 programming (Leeds, Leeds Preschool, JFK) as a .9 and has 50 kids on her caseload. She can’t fit all of her caseload into her schedule. The other elementary OTs only have 2 programming, 2 programming or 1 programming. She is meeting with Celeste about this 9/5 → Kate will follow up with OT around how this meeting with Celeste went
• New 2nd floater position was cut with the budget
• First Wednesday of each month will be with the Superintendent Dr.Bonner to be open to join
• Retroactive snow pay communication for the 10-12 members needed, a janitorial meeting was discussed with Dr.Bonner around this issue and will be followed up on
• Could not get para orientation negotiated in the contract → NHS has 7 new paras who lacked NHS knowledge. Paula was able to talk with them for 20 minutes. NHS principal is going to budget with the budget to pay paras half day for a para orientation. 
  • Paula was able to get all 7 to sign up as members!!
  • Thoughts that Erica and Paula will run this
• Are staff having concerns around the COVID policy and the lack of response to this? Still currently no health office leader. Questions on COVID direct to BSS nurse
• People are reporting that they don’t want to test because they do not want to use 5 of their sick days for their 5 COVID out days. The COVID policy is not clear for the 23-24 school year

Meeting of the NASE Executive Board

Tuesday,  April 4, 4:00

Ryan Road School – Room 200

APPROVED 5/2/2023

Download minutes here

In Attendance: (13 participants)

Andrea Egitto, Karen Schiaffo, Paula Rigano-Murray, Vanessa Coates-Cooney, Tammy Cook, Sharon Carlson, Erica Lamanna, Brian Bagdon, Sara Churchill-Winsor, Kim Bowler, Cyndie Ouimette, Heather Brown, Kate Fontaine, Tammy 

 

Andrea calls the meeting to order at 4:02 pm.

 

Item I: Call to Order 

• Check-in

 

Item II: New Business

• Working on snow day retro for snow day pay → some have received the retro pay and some have not, unsure as to why, the superintendent and business office is fighting this
  • Thought is to file a grievance with past practice around this, then to make an MOA around the language for pay for snow days
• Brian emailed Sara around the vacation pay issues
  • Moving forward with grievance 
• Rumors with the budget cuts that non-student facing members to be cut and that is worrisome
• Health insurance from GIC was told to change plans since it looks out of the area → Tammy has reached out to Chad around this problem and will continue to work on this
• Sick bank question: What is the process and do people get denied? If this is for a sick family member can this work? → Will need to do FMLA and can ask superintendent to ask to use personal sick time for family member
• SVAHS have not received the negotiations stipends from 2022 → will send a list to Sharon to have this processed
• Andrea and Heather met with the mayor on Monday 4/3 around the school budget concerns and issues for the upcoming fiscal year
• Political Action Liaison (PAL) issues → questioning Hellen Woods and Veronica Douglas are appointed and shared out to MTA, confirmed that Hellen Woods and Veronica Douglas are our PALs

Item III: Secretary’s Report

MOTION: to accept the secretary’s report

Entertained by: Andrea

Moved by: Sharon

Seconded by: Kate

Motion Approved: unanimously

 

Item IV: Treasurer’s report – budget for FY23

MOTION: to accept the treasurer’s report 

Entertained by: Andrea

Moved by: Paula

Seconded by: Tammy

Motion Approved: unanimously

 

Item V: NASE End of year party

• All-In grant ready for the end of the year social asking for $5,000 → will be submitted with Heather and Andrea to be CC’d on the application
• Possible dates → 1st Choice: Thursday, June 15th  2nd Choice: Wednesday, June 14th

 

Item VI: NPS Budget 

• Heather and Andrea met with the mayor on Monday around the budget with doing another $100,000 per building
• Trip to Boston had about 30 people ready to go → the hearing was canceled and will be rescheduled
  • Most likely to go out in a date in May
  • MTA will fund a bus, a room, and lunch with support/guide on a plan when at the state house
• If the mayor does not increase then need to work on school committee to lobby the higher budget
• If the mayor does increase then need to work on the legislature 

• 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

 

Item VII: NASE Annual Meeting

• MTA Annual Meeting: Currently at 8 delegates going → would love to get 4 more delegates to go
  • Sara and Vanessa will be joining to make 10 total
• NASE scholarship updates → 9 applicants, the committee will meet this week to select the 4 who will get the scholarship
• Bylaws change was talked about at the EC meeting → FOR THE FUTURE: a committee at the beginning of the year should meet and work on earlier in the year
• NASE Annual meeting at JFK → need snacks to be brought
  • Tammy Cook, Sara Churchill-Winsor volunteered to do
• NASE Annual meeting at JFK → ballot forms will have names who are already nominated and 1 or 2 empty lines for write ins

 

Item VIII: Smith Voc update

• Started the budget meeting 4/4
• Contract is signed and in paper form → waiting for it to be shared out and posted

 

Item IX: Adjourn

MOTION: to adjourn.

Entertained by: Andrea

Moved by: Cindy

Seconded by: Sharon

Motion Approved: unanimously 

 

APPROVED April 4, 2023

Tuesday,  March 7, 4:00

Click here to download

Ryan Road School – Room 200

In Attendance: (13 participants)

Andrea Egitto, Karen Schiaffo, Paula Rigano-Murray, Vanessa Coates-Cooney, Tammy Cook, Sharon Carlson, Erica Lamanna, Brian Bagdon, Mike Parks, Sara Churchill-Winsor, Kim Bowler, Cyndie Ouimette, Heather Brown,

Andrea calls the meeting to order at 4:03 pm.

Item I: Call to Order – Check-in

Item II: New Business

• Holly Currier running for ESP at large for MTA, curious about how to better reach and serve the locals of MA
  • Give feedback on ways that MTA neglects western MA, how they can better support western MA, ect.
  • Ideas: pick a more central (not just near Boston) meeting location, communicate stand outs and successes of western MA locals, support around making western MA representation groups, funding, 
• Fair Share Amendment based on governor’s proposed budget: early care 140 million, higher education 360 million, k-12 education 10 million
  • Andrea will be meeting with Noah Burger around the allocation of money, budgeting and funding for education
• Ward 7 EB members are meeting with their Ward 7 board member to talk about budgeting and funding → think about doing so if you live in Northampton
• Scholarship committee → application deadline is March 31st
• Delegates needed for MTA annual meeting 4/28 and 4/29 in Springfield MGM
  • Due to our increased membership we now have 12 slots → email Kira for nominations on these slots

Item III: Secretary’s Report

APPROVED 3/14/2023

Meeting of the NASE Executive Committee

Click here to download

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
• 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

schiaffo89@gmail.com

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 .

APPROVED 3/7/2023

Meeting of the NASE Executive Board

Click here to download

Tuesday,  February 7, 4:00

Ryan Road School – Room 200

In Attendance: (12 participants)

Andrea Egitto, Karen Schiaffo, Paula Rigano-Murray, Vanessa Coates-Cooney, Tammy Cook, Kim Bowler, Heather Brown, Kate Fontaine, Sharon Carlson, Erica Lamanna, Sara Churchill-Winsor, Cyndie Ouimette,

Andrea calls the meeting to order at 4:03 pm.

Item I: Call to Order – Check-in

Item II: New Business

• Delegates needed for MTA annual meeting in Springfield MGM
  • Paula Rigano-Murray, Sharon Carlson, Heather Brown, Sara Churchill-Winsor, Andrea Egitto, Karen Schiaffo
  • Usually have 11 slots, if we have more than that who want to go then we need to have an election
  • Date moved up to last week of April
• Email from Glenda about once every seven years we have 27 paid Thursdays in the year and we only get 26 pay periods this year, which will affect members → to be shared at the next EC meeting
  • 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
• SVAHS negotiations update
  • Unit H is still currently negotiating 
  • Waiting for Crystal to print and send to Cyndie for signatures
• Contracts are printed and in place at the buildings
• Set up an information mail chain (MailChimp) to members to be more streamlined for upcoming meetings, important items discussed at EC meetings, ect. to personal emails → secretary to oversee and set up
• NASE annual meeting will be the Wednesday after April break –  April 26th at 4:00 to be at SVAHS cafeteria
  • We will provide snacks

Item III:   Secretary’s Report

MOTION: to accept the secretary’s report

Entertained by: Andrea

Moved by: Paula

Seconded by: Kate

Motion Approved: unanimously

Item IV: Treasurer’s report – Present budget as amended – budget for FY23

• Winter Skills conference: reimbursement for expenses
• If needing a new W2 go on to ADP
• Concerns with incorrect W2s are being corrected and sent back out
• Is there a mileage reimbursement form for the conference?
  • This will be looked into for price per mile

MOTION: to accept the treasurer’s report 

Entertained by: Andrea

Moved by: Paula

Seconded by: Sara

Motion Approved: unanimously

Item V: NPS budget

• Superintendent to share out budget to School Committee coming up
• Shared at ALT meeting with administrators
  • Shared out: reduction in force notice needs to be notified on appropriate timelines around Unit A and Unit C
• NASE push will have to be towards city council and city council meetings

Item VI: Smith Voc (SVAHS) budget

• Budget hearing seemed to go well when presented

Item VII: Adjourn 

MOTION: to adjourn.

Entertained by: Andrea

Moved by: Kate

Seconded by: Paula

Motion Approved: unanimously

Upcoming meeting

February 14, 4:00 Executive Committee Meeting – JFK Community Room – NHS provides snacks

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

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. 

We also attended the initial district budget meeting to continue trying to avert painful cuts.