January 11, 2010
Dear Colleagues,
On January 7, 2010, the New Bedford Educators Association Board of Directors unanimously voted against signing the Race To The Top Memorandum of Understanding.
This decision was based on the following:
· Teacher evaluations should not be based on MCAS scores.
· Teacher salaries should not be based on student scores.
· Professional Teacher Status should not be tied to student performance.
Also, the Superintendent and/or the DESE would have the ability to do one or more of the following at underperforming schools:
· Replace the principal + at least 50% of the staff.
· Close a school and re-open it under charter management or other educational management company.
· Close a school and transfer its students to other schools.
In closing, the New Bedford Educators Association Board of Directors believes that Race To the Top compromises our core principles.
Sincerely,
Lou St. John
7 comments:
GREAT! But what happens now? Can they still throw out our contracts and take full control over everyone?
Lack of funds means job cuts----way to go!
These funds are not necessarily slated for any current jobs and you would be surprised how quickly 3 mill can disappear in a 120mil schools budget. So lets get the facts before we throw out the fear card.
YEAH!! Kudos to NBEA President. You obvoiously are a strong leader who protects the teachers in NB. Your letter was so powerful and right to the point on the Race to the Top.
I'm a member of FREA (Fall River),and
we narrowly voted against this legislation tonight. Our union president tried to convince us to vote yes! Our union is so weak. The teacher's are not the problem. God bless us all and good luck to all the educators in this country!!! NBEA and FREA ------you are the hardest working people I've ever seen!!!!!!!!!
To the sarcastic poster above: Try seeing a forest instead of just trees. We voted the way we did in order to protect your rights under collective bargaining. We are looking for assurances that our members will not be negatively impacted. And for the record, lack of these funds (which NB would receive if the NBEA agrees to enter into negotiations to possibly give back language we have won over several` years)does not necessarily mean job cuts. Our agreeing to negotiate away our rights could mean job cuts. Any informed member of the NBEA who reads Lou's letters on this blog would know that. I believe Lou does a good job of keeping the members informed of what is going on. And then there's Maude.
Who are we kidding? This president and his Sec.of Ed are out to make unions a thing of the past. The writting is on the wall folks. Listen to any fed involved in education and they are all traveling down the same road. Get rid of the unions. Now the union stand has even ------ off the the mayor!
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