February Update
I greet you in peace, love and strength.
As we continue to forge ahead, let us remember we are not alone. Many times, in our profession and in each of our buildings, we go through trials and tribulations and we believe that no one else will understand. Many of us struggle day to day, as I mentioned last month, to keep going and moving forward like the rivers and ocean currents. That vision of a flowing river or ocean current sometimes occupies my mind as I move through my workday. I would love for it to be my daily view, in reality; and for some it is a reality and for some it is just a dream that occupies our minds as we drift through the day.
Often, I hear stories of how some of us are not as kind to others as we can be. Our work lives would all be better if we could practice kindness to our fellow colleagues. These are tough times for most of us at home and at work. Many of us struggle daily with situations at home that can interfere with our performance at work. This is not the time to tear each other down, make this a time to lift our brothers and sisters up. Be that shoulder to lean on in distress, be that person that can fill in the gap when mistakes are being made, be that person that someone can truly confide in, be that trusted person who can listen, empathize, and understand someone’s issues or concerns. I challenge us all to show kindness to all whom we encounter. You never know what someone is dealing with, this could be their breaking point, and you could make a difference ….
We have so much work to do in our respective workplaces, there is no need to shun people or belittle a person to the degree that causes them to have undue stress at work. If we could just be about the business of helping our students and families; just be about leaving a legacy that helps the next generation succeed.
A mentor of mine passed away over MLK weekend and I am a part of his legacy. Right after college, someone sent me to meet Ronn Johnson, who was instrumental in shaping me into the women I am today. Many may know of him and if not, I will tell you “Mr. Johnson was a leader who worked for disadvantaged, with tireless efforts to ensure children had food and the disabled could achieve their dreams”. Springfield is a better place because of him, I am a better person because of him. Let’s all strive to have the impact that Ronn had on people as individuals and on this community.
I would like to offer, to some as we celebrate Black History Month a quote from Grace O’Hare
“Still, we have a lot of work to do. So let’s get comfortable with the uncomfortable, and take this Black History Month to reflect on ourselves, our communities, and our work. Let’s use this time to listen to black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in our workplace and within our networks and be proactive in engaging in conversations around work and race. I challenge myself, and all of you, to think critically about how our work is contributing to positive change or isn’t. And if it is not, to speak up and be a part of creating solutions that foster positive change".
Let’s take this time to recommit ourselves to doing the work to create a more equitable global community. Let’s take this time to remember to celebrate all BIPOC (Black, Indigenous,People of Color) not just today, but every day.
Black history is American history. Let’s make future generations proud.
In solidarity,
Tracy Little-Sasanecki MSW
SEA President
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
I ran this article earlier this year, but I found the need to run it again, especially for those
of you in the Empowerment Zone.
Weingarten Rights
You have the right to have union representation at any meeting with any administrator that could result in disciplinary action(s) against you.
You cannot be required to attend spontaneous meetings with administrators. See the contract language below under “Disciplinary Action”.
If you are asked to attend a meeting with administration, ask them these questions:
“Will this meeting lead to disciplinary action?”
“Could this meeting result in future disciplinary action?”
If the answer is yes to either question, request that an Association Representative (Building Rep) be present. If you have questions or want to have Peter J. Reese at the meeting, call the SEA office (782-8300).
STAY CALM. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN
OR DEFEND YOURSELF BEFORE THE MEETING!
Disciplinary Action
Closely associated with the above is the contractual language regarding discipline meetings with administration. When asked to meet by an administrator, ASK the Weingarten questions. If the answer to either question is yes and although it is incumbent on you to invoke Weingarten, you should request/expect to be notified according to the contract language. The Contract states in Article 20.B:
A teacher will be notified in advance, in writing, of the purpose of a meeting with an administrator in cases where disciplinary action is contemplated, and shall be entitled to have Association representation. The administrator shall exercise reasonable discretion in disciplining a teacher.
The above pertains to requests to submit a written account of an incident that could be construed as a disciplinary matter: invoke Weingarten and expect a letter informing you of a meeting. Get SEA representation.
Social Media
Any use of social media platforms, email, and internet activity, especially when accessed through the employer’s computer/network, should be monitored by your internal “is this appropriate” voice. You can incur disciplinary measures as a result of engaging in posting/communicating a variety of seemingly innocent topics. Protected speech has limitations when taking into account the employee/employer relationship in the public sector. The bottom line (and I can’t stress this too strongly) is do not identify yourself as an SPS employee, do not state you work at a particular school, carefully edit your communication prior to emailing, posting, etc., do not use student names/identifiers, no pictures of students or schools, or colleagues…. There is still to this day, the fact that educators can be disciplined up to and including dismissal, for acts “unbecoming” of an educator. The interpretation of behavior unbecoming is open to interpretation. Basically, don’t let the two worlds collide – professional/personal.
Keep Smiling,
Peter J. Reese
SEA Professional Relations Associate
DISTRICT HOURLY RATE INCREASES TO $50
Effective immediately the hourly rate for student facing time is increased to $50/hour for educators covered by the district contract. This rate is for before and after school, summer, night, and weekend programs. This increase is being funded with ESSER funds and will be in effect until 9/1/2024, contingent on the money being available. Should the funding not be available before 9/1/2024, the rate will revert to the contractual hourly rate of $35 and any impacted posting must reflect the lower rate. Please click here to view the MOU.
SEA SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS
The SEA scholarship applications are available on our website seateachers.com under the "Docs" tab. The deadline for applying is March 14. Here are the scholarships that are offered:
- M. Kasparian: a total of five (5) $1,000.00 scholarships. To be eligible, the student must be a relative of an SEA member
- P. DuPuis: one (1) $1,000.00 scholarship. To be eligible, the student must be graduating from a SPS alternative school
- J. Cormack: one (1) $1,000.00 scholarship. To be eligible, the student must be a graduate of an SPS high school
The scholarships will be given out at the SEA Annual Picnic in June. This year we hope that the person who nominates the student will attend to help us present the scholarship.
COVID UPDATE
The numbers of positive cases are dropping. In the last week there were 120 students and 42 staff who reported being positive for COVID. This down from a high of 789 students and 196 staff the week of 1/6 – 1/13.
The District’s COVID Power Point was updated to reflect that there will be No Test and Stay program, no contract tracing, and no need for seating charts due to the availability of home test kits. As of this writing 7500 students and 2950 staff had opted in to receive the home test kits. DESE was supporting the Test and Stay program and has decided to end it. Pool Testing and Symptomatic testing will continue in the schools.
Masks:
DESE is ending the mask mandate on February 28. Springfield has announced that the mask mandate in Springfield will be in place through March. Watch for an SEA survey about the continuation of the mask mandate as soon as we get back from break. We have heard arguments for both continuing and ending the mandate from some members. The survey will give us a basis from which to continue to advocate for your health and safety.
Another shipment of KN95 masks should be in your school after break, at the latest. There should be 5-6 packages for each staff person.
Vaccination Update:
Maureen Colgan-Posner and a group of retiree volunteers have been staffing the vaccine clinics at the elementary schools. So far, they have provided first shots to many students and family members and are making the rounds to provide second shots. Vaccine clinics will continue in schools throughout the spring with the goal of vaccinating as many students as possible to support the health and safety of our school communities.
ESSER FUNDS AND SCHOOL LEVEL BUDGETING
The district has decided to give schools a substantial allocation this year from ESSER funds. The figure we have heard is a district-wide amount of $80 million. This translates to over $3,000 per student being provided to each school. You do the math – it is a substantial increase. ESSER requires that districts reach out to families, community members, students, staff, and their unions. We understand that many principals have reached out for input already. Your input should not end with a brainstorming session. There should be an ongoing discussion between staff and principal. At the Legislative Board (building rep) meeting we suggested that if staff have not already prioritized their ideas, then a union meeting needs to be held to prioritize staff’s ideas and get them to the principal.
One idea that we have for spending this additional money is based on a summer program we coordinated with some schools when SEA had a $2.5 million, 5 year grant from the NEA Foundation (2010-2015). While we had the grant we provided funding to Dorman, Walsh, Boland, and Bowles to support a great standards-aligned, project-based, full-school- day summer program. Students in the district’s regular summer school in those schools desperately wished to be in our program because our students were outside doing projects, reading, and journaling about what they were doing, as well as going on weekly field trips rather than sitting in class at desks. When the grant went away, the schools could no longer afford to do the program. Our hope is that, with this additional funding, students can once again have a great summer camp-like experience at summer school. If you’d like more information about this, contact the SEA office at 782-8300 or [email protected].
SEA’S LABOR- COMMUNITY-MANAGEMENT PROJECTS –
HOME VISIT PROJECT (HVP) AND DIVERSITY INCLUSION AND RACIAL EQUITY (DIRE) TEAM
Home Visit Project
In 2002, the SEA and the Pioneer Valley Project brought the idea of educators doing home visits to the school committee. Twenty years later, the district continues to support this project by providing funds to all the elementary schools. The goal for the home visits are to get to know the child and their family on their territory. While called a home visit, it does not have to happen in the home – it can happen anywhere in the community suggested by the family.
Each home visit team consist of an educator and another staff member at the school. All members of a school’s staff are eligible to attend a home visit with the educator if they have gone through the HVP training.
HVP is coordinated at the district level by a team consisting of the SEA, the Para union, the Pioneer Valley Project (PVP) and the Parent and Community Engagement (PACE) office. We will be meeting with the HVP coordinators soon to plan a re-start of the project post- COVID pandemic. If you think this is something you might want to do, the next HVP training is on February 19th from 9-1. The registration can be found on Teach Point and participants are paid based on their union contract. For SEA members the rate is $29.10/hour.
Diversity Inclusion, and Racial Equity
The Diversity Inclusion and Racial Equity Team started to work together as a labor-community-management collaboration in the spring of 2020 after students brought forth to the superintendent the demand that educators receive two days of professional development each year for 5 years to improve the cultural competence of educators. This followed over 2 years of SEA ALANA (African, Latin, Asian, Native American) working to bring the issues of educators and students of color to the district’s attention.
Diversity, Inclusion, and Racial Equity Professional Development
Once the students brought their issues to the Superintendent in a large public meeting, the district agreed to work with the SEA and PVP to start the process of providing this PD. The first professional development program that all administrators and educators will participate in is a 4-session program with Kalise Wornum. As of now, all the secondary schools have been through this program. Starting in the fall elementary schools will begin participating in this PD.
Kalise’s program is not a one and done! There are to be at least 2 days each year for the next four years dedicated to diversity, inclusion, and racial equity professional development.
Diversity, Inclusion, and Racial Equity Team Update
The Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Equity team continues to fight for the schools our students and educators deserve. The team has two “branches” so to speak. One branch is the district level group that meets once a month. That “branch” consists of Stefania Raschilla, Brian Dickey, Valerie Williams, Darcia Milner (who replaced Lydia Martinez when she retired in January), Tracy Little Sasanecki, Joy Ross, Theresa Bryant, Brenda Dunn, Cedric Cunningham, Nancy DeProsse, Cathy Mastronardi, Tara Parish, and Maureen Colgan Posner.
The other “branch” is the subcommittees that consist of two District branch members, educators, community members, and school committee members. The subcommittees focus on one of four areas: Policies and Procedures, Hiring, Retention and Promotion, Professional Development, and Curriculum. This work has been ongoing for almost 5 years now and has gotten more refined and focused during that time. The subcommittees meet via zoom the second Tuesday of the month at 4:15.
Three years ago, you may remember we made a loud and very public statement at a school committee meeting demanding that the district put forth more effort to hire, retain and promote educators of color and to end the nepotism that prevents any real change from happening. Out of that demand grew the District DIRE team. It is a collaboration between the SPS, the SEA, the SFoP, and the Pioneer Valley Project (a community organization.)
Accomplishments – Slow, but steady
We realized after our last meeting, that we have accomplished some important changes.
Recruiting, Hiring and Retention
* We had suggested that the district follow the Zone’s lead and rewrite their job postings to include a contact person in the HR department to answer questions directly. They have now added Valerie Williams as a person for potential candidates to contact with any questions or concerns they may have.
* The district has created a pool of interview questions that are designed to evaluate a candidate’s understanding of Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Equity and how that impacts teaching and learning in our district. The questions are being shared with principals and are expected to be part of the hiring/transfer interview process.
* The principals’ contract has a diversity goal as part of the evaluation rubric. Those were demands that were initially made by the SEA ALANA group 3 years ago. Slow progress, but progress never-the-less. The work is ongoing and will need monitoring to be sure that the practices are being implemented.
Curriculum
The curriculum committee reported that SPS has now incorporated a 20% new curriculum that promotes diversity and equity in ELA grades 6-12. Three schools, STEM, Central and Public Day Middle have committed to creating DIRE projects that will be shared with the community in the spring. In August PD, all secondary ELA educators were trained in how to have courageous conversations.
Professional Development
The Professional Development subcommittee worked with the district to hire Kalise Warnum to do initial professional development with all SPS educators and administrators around the issue of diversity, inclusion, and racial equity. It is on-going work and by 2023 all schools and administrators will have completed the workshop. The PD subcommittee is working to identify more professional development opportunities in this area. The committee is also looking for a way to assess what educators need so that a “menu” of PD could be created. If you would like to work with us to plan or develop this PD, please contact the SEA office at [email protected] and put DIRE PD in the subject line. Brenda Dunn, SEA Vice President or Caity Welz, SEA PD Chair will get in touch with you.
Policy and Procedures
The Policy and Procedures subcommittee has been working to identify a consultant that can help us move our work forward and hold every team accountable for accomplishing the goals they have identified. The subcommittee is working to identify how to conduct an equity audit of the district’s policies and develop equity teams in each school. This subcommittee organized a retreat in the summer for the district team which spent a day clarifying and focusing the work of all four subcommittees.
The subcommittee work plans are on the SEA website and all members are welcome to join a subcommittee and continue to work toward a more just and equitable school system for all. Contact Tracy if you are interested in joining a subcommittee.
MTA UNION SKILLS WORKSHOP (On-line February 26 - March 7)
Every winter, the MTA offers skill-building workshops for union members, activists, and leaders.
This year’s virtual event will kick off on Saturday, February 26, with a plenary session featuring Oklahoma Educators Association Member Stephanie Price and filmmaker Yael Bridge of the documentary "The Big Scary 'S' Word.", Price and Bridge will join MTA President Merrie Najimy to speak to the power of collective action. This will be followed by a special Strike School: First Steps workshop, where MTA member leaders will review the foundational needs and campaign components needed to set a local on a successful path toward collective action readiness.
Additional workshops centering around our core union work, essential priorities and current issues will be offered between Feb. 28 and March 17:
· Meet the Candidates for MTA President and Vice President
· Winter Union Skills Collective Action Kickoff
· How to Advocate for Anti-Racist Public Education: A Legal Toolkit for Educator Activists
· Bargaining Fundamentals Part 1 and 2
· Effective Communications for Union Leaders and Activists
· Building an Anti-Racist Public Higher Education System
· ESP Adding Money to Your Contract and Your Paycheck
· Fair Share Amendment Presentation
· Building and Retaining Leadership Teams
· Contract Campaigns and Action Teams
· Bylaws & Best Practices for Local Executive Committee & Boards
· Getting Involved in School Committee Elections
· Conflict Resolution Skills
· Bargaining for the Common Good
· Constituent Power Building Workshop
· Interpreting and Drafting Contract Language
· Unions 101
· Community Partnerships and Actions
· Economics of Bargaining
· Financial Best Practices for Your Local
· What is Title XI Discrimination: A Union Activist Toolkit
· Membership Management for Local Officers
· Strategic Planning for Local Leaders
· Grievance Fundamentals K-12
· Higher Ed Stewards Training
· Resources to Support Negotiations
EARN 15 PDPS FROM THIS NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (NEA) LGBTQ+ COURSE
From the NEA:
“Teachers play a crucial role in supporting and advocating for LGBTQ+ students, ensuring they can learn and explore in a safe classroom space.
In our current divisive and challenging climate, many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ+) students struggle to find their safe spaces, especially in schools.
To help members support our LGBTQ+ students, NEA is offering online blended learning courses to educate members about a variety of LGBTQ+ topics and to inspire action. These courses will help members create a more inclusive and equitable learning environment for all students.
- LGBTQ+ courses run February 28 to April 09
- Registration Closes: February 18, 2022
SEA RETIREES STEP UP TO SUPPORT SPS EDUCATORS AND FAMILIES!
Tools4Teaching
Retirees continue to run the Tools4Teaching store at 70 Tapley Street in Springfield. It is a wonderful resource for all Springfield Public School educators for both new and used materials. The store is open every second and third Thursday of the month from 3:00-5:30. Be sure to check it out. If you are interested in helping at the store contact Chris Williams at [email protected]. All retirees are welcome!
Vaccine Clinics at Elementary Schools
Retired educators were asked to volunteer at the vaccine clinics that were held at many elementary school. The clinics were a collaboration between SPS and the Behavioral Health Network. Nine retirees volunteered to help at the clinics. Their role was to greet families, explain the process and help them complete the required registration forms. Students along with their family members could get first doses, second doses, boosters and even the flu vaccine at their neighborhood school. Participation varied by site, but the wonderful SPS nurses, as well as the nurses from BHN, deserve a big thank you!
Mentoring Current Teachers
Retirees have expressed an interest in supporting current educators as mentors. As we all know, educators are under more strain than ever. The ever-increasing demands, worries about student and staff mental health, concerns about student learning loss due to the pandemic, and the ridiculous demands of getting students ready for standardized testing that is only going to show what we already know – we’re in a pandemic of epic proportions are taking a toll on educators.
Our retired educators recognize this new reality and want to help educators in any way they can. A retiree mentor would only be affiliated with the union. They would have no role to play in the school, they would not be accountable to a principal or any other staff person. They would be a confidential resource for an educator. For example, they could advise on classroom management, time management, classroom routines and procedures, or content expertise. They would respond to the request of the educator and follow the lead of the educator. If you are interested in mentoring a new educator, email Maureen Colgan Posner at [email protected]. If you are an educator who would like a confidential mentor contact Tracy Little Sasanecki at [email protected]
PLEASE ASK THE PARAS IN YOUR SCHOOL HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THEM IN THEIR CONTRACT FIGHT FOR A LIVING WAGE!
