Meeting of the NASE Executive Committee
Tuesday, November 12, 2024 4:00
Community Room, JFK Middle School
APPROVED 12/10/2024
In Attendance: (31 participants)
Helen Woods-Blake, Laila Copperanskly, Carrie Foley, Kevin Schmith, Joshua Katz, Holly Taylor, Danielle Kowal, Harry Wallace, Xristina Warren, Sandy Bombard, Karen Schiaffo, Laura St. Pierre, Erica Caron, Mareatha Wallace, Jennifer Hayden, Madyson Mackenzie, Tammy LaChance, Kristin Thibedau, Jake Gallant, Raymond Paquette, Nick Richert, Emily Dumais, Andrea Egitto, Erica Lamanna, Vanessa Coates-Cooney, Tammy Cook, Sara Churchill-Winsor, Heather Brown, Brian Bagdon, Kim Bowler, Cyndie Ouimette
Excused:
Paula Rigano-Murray, Jaime Lawrence, Jessica Lavallee, Kate Fontaine,
Andrea calls the meeting to order at 4:01 pm.
Item I: Call to Order
Item II: Secretary’s Report with officer reports
- CAT members are not delegates but who will assist you in the buildings
MOTION: to accept the Secretary’s Report
Entertained by: Andrea
Moved by: Mareatha
Seconded by: Jennifer
Motion Approved: unanimously
Item III: Treasurer’s Report – see hard copies of September and October
- New delegates must fill out tax forms for payment (W-4)
- eadumais@gmail.com
- Working with the bank to get a union credit card to streamline
MOTION: to accept the September & October Treasurer’s Report
Entertained by: Andrea
Moved by: Sandy
Seconded by: Tammy
Motion Approved: unanimously
Item IV: Bargaining discussion
- Chapter Coordinators share bargaining teams
- Kim (unit G: cafeteria) → Kristin Thibedau
- Brian (unit F: custodian) → Kevin Schmith
- Tammy (unit E: clerical) → Sandy Bombard
- Erica (unit C: paras) → Still working
- No coordinator at this time (unit B: admin) → None at this time
- Kate (unit A: teachers) → Kate not here so not shared at this time
- Expanded bargaining availability
- including NASE members in the audience who are silent but will help during our caucus time
- Listening tours have been completed and being put into our initial proposal
- Sharing information, ideas, requests can still be shared with the negotiation team
- Send to Andrea
- Met this Martin, our new MTA person, for this bargaining session
- Potential timeline?
- Request to bargain was given out, Mayor sent confirmation that it has been received, is on the next school committee agenda to get moved forward
- The initial proposal will be shared out with members
- The plan is to go into our first meeting with initial proposal to share out
- Rethink how the agenda for the negotiation meetings will be noted/scheduled out
- SVAHS sent out a request to bargain, but dates have not been determined/shared out
Item V: New Business
- Andrea met with the PEC (all presidents to city unions) if we all want to stay with the GIC (insurance) or move to a different company
- city hired insurance broker to give out information at this meeting
- NASE has a weighted vote for Northampton city for this
- All other companies declined to give a quote. Therefore, it was shared that there is no other alternatives to vote on
- Other districts have members find insurance then higher paychecks
- Are buildings organizing to have attendance at the school committee meetings to share experiences/stories? BSS did this previously and had positive community communication/reactions
- November 14th: NHS, have 9 people come out and share for Thursday’s meeting
- December 12th:
- The free cash will be certified by the city council to then determine placement of the money
- Concern around a policy for teachers as well as students around misgendering, inequalities, title IX, and accountability with this
- These come from the school committee and the rules and policies subcommittee
- Title IX has timelines and has a reporting/investigation process
- NPS Policies
- SOS is having a stand out at city hall on 11/21 at 5:30 to continue to fight to fully fund our schools
- NPS district wide website is being reported being very challenging to navigate from employees, parents
- What was the superintendent’s response around paras sitting around doing nothing
- Collected 5 pages of comments from members
- This was shared to the school committee, 2 school committee members responded it was received
- Share this information out at public comment around positive experiences that paras do for this district
Item VI: Adjourn
MOTION: to adjourn
Entertained by: Andrea
Moved by: Tammy
Seconded by: Sandy
Motion Approved: unanimously
Upcoming meetings:
December 3, 4:00 Ryan Road – NASE Executive Board
December 10, 4:00 JFK – NASE Executive Committee Meeting
Officer Reports:
ESPs (Unit C)
Issues at JSS and BSS. Sent out a follow up to the letter around the qualifications for paraeducators.
Custodian (Unit F)
Hired a new night custodian at JFK – in the process of this.
Cafeteria (Unit G)
Someone resigned which will need to be filled. Still looking to fill two part times jobs.
PR&R
One of the elementary schools had a health and safety grievance – the response is not satisfactory to all parties. If there are things that still want to be discussed in the meeting to reconvene and move forward with that. Have another grievance to file about the preamble
Membership Coordinator
11 new members as of the last EC meeting. The prorated forms will be updated after November 14.
Communications Coordinator- Check out our NASEMTA.ORG page! The website has been updated.
President’s and Vice President’s Report-
Organizing meetings. MTA meetings. Went to all 6 NPS schools for the listening tour around the upcoming negotiations. Sent out the to demand to bargain for NPS and SVAHS – received a response from SVAHS. Working on organizing actions.
CAT TEAM – volunteers
Josh Seamon- Ingalls – JFK
Jenny Mae Viets – NHS
Jess Lavalle – NHS
Sue Sullivan – NHS
Michele Bernhard – NHS
Jake Gallant – NHS (para)
Karen Hidalgo – NHS
Beth Monopoli – BSS
Jen Lucine – JSS
Huimin Wan- JSS
Sara Simmons RR
Cori Carey – RR
Lisa Labeau – RR
Kate Dell Olio – Leeds
Sarah Carlton – JSS
Tyler Holter – NHS (para)