August 5, 2010
Dear Member,
On July 7th the New Bedford Educators Association (NBEA) received a request from the New Bedford School Committee, through Superintendent Francis, to consider a step and wage freeze proposal for the FY 11 contract year. It is important to note that the NBEA is entering into the final year of a three-year agreement between the Parties.
A general membership meeting was held at Keith Middle School on August 5th. After much discussion, the NBEA membership voted 353-98 to reject any monetary concessions for the 2010-2011 contract year.
The Parties have an agreement that was entered into through good faith bargaining. The NBEA membership respects the process and voted to uphold the conditions of the current contract.
This was a difficult decision to reach since it appears that some members of the NBEA will be laid off because of the current and continuing fiscal situation. The NBEA Executive Board and the negotiating team will honor the decision of the membership at large.
It is the hope of the NBEA that the Education Jobs Bill will provide some funding to the New Bedford Public Schools to reinstate positions.
Despite the challenges posed by the gloomy fiscal climate, NBEA members remain dedicated to the students of New Bedford and will work with the school department to provide quality instruction.
Lou
11 comments:
can we get the vote count? This was not relayed at our meeting.
It was relayed at the meeting and it was requested that the decision not be made public until a press release was issued.
Lou, please release the vote count. From the looks of the piles on the front table, it appeared to be quite close. I think that we all deserve to know.
Im proud to be one of the 98
It was such a bizarre thing to watch-- out of a membership that is probably 90% female, 75% of the "talkers" at the meeting were males. Not exactly my idea of a balanced discussion.
Amazing. Absolutely amazing. One person posting to the blog knew that there were only 98 "yes" votes while another thought the voting "appeared to be close." Another observed that "the majority of the membership is female, yet the majority of the speakers were male.........." Yeah, so what????? Did someone stop anyone at the meeting from speaking?????? I attended the meeting and while I was pleasingly surprised at the turnout, I was taken aback that only about a third of the membership attended such an important meeting. That comment is directed at both Unit A and Unit B members. I thought the president and the cabinet conducted a very fair meeting, allowed any and everyone who wanted to speak to voice their opinions, provided valuable information on the pros and cons of each option, and then conducted a fair and honest vote. I will leave it to the president to release numbers if he so chooses, however, for those of you who like math-consider: if there were 98 yes votes and the proposal was voted down by a three and one half to one margin, what were the final numbers?
Sorry. Can't help the teacher in me.
Last night the membership received an email update from lou with the details of the meeting.
Immediately after the update the information was posted on our web site and blog.
I would like to thank Lou, the cabinet members and the board of directors for their time both with the meeting yesterday and with the amount of meetings that they attended prior to that. We have a great group of leaders who should be proud of the way they conducted themselves.
I felt that yesterdays meeting was conducted professionally. Everyone acted responsibly and asked good questions. I didn't hear anyone being or acting disrespectfully to anyone. We all had our chance to speak and vote. Now it is time to come together and work as the great team that we are.
Thanks again to the NBEA leadership, and the MTA spokesperson who helped out! You are all CLASS ACTS!!!!!! It is a privilege to work beside you!
Kelly Pacheco
If you review the hierarchy of assistant superintendents and supervisors,it seems a bit excesssive, especially the needless position " the superintendent of diversity". How many thousands of dollars this district could save and replace these positions with teachers. I hope that the teachers will not have the blame placed on their shoulders when downtown has not "sacrificed " enough! It's laughable! It makes me feel that teachers are so unappreciated when we vote for a raise that is so rightfully ours.
aren't supervisors Unit B? Given your exhaustive review of these positions, can you explain which should be eliminated ( that haven't already gone ?
I thought the meeting was well attended and had good discussion. I do not think teachers should have to give up anything. A good portion of my salary is going right back to the students of NB since we basically have no books or materials to teach with.
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