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On behalf of the Board of Directors and President Lou St. John I would like to extend a warm and thoughtful THANK YOU to everyone who attended Friday’s general meeting.   You gave up your valuable time and it is greatly appreciated. On Friday afternoon hundreds of our members filled the New Bedford High School auditorium. The exceptional participation at Friday’s general meeting confirmed why the New Bedford Educators Association is one of the strongest and most respected unions in all of Massachusetts. Your union plays an integral role in shaping policy and addressing your working conditions.  Friday’s meeting delivered a firm message to each and every person that “Together We Stand United and Strong”.

NBEA wants you to know that your call to action has been heard. We are in the process of establishing a District Climate Task Force. We are also creating a list of local businesses that advertise on local media outlets that have been attacking YOU and YOUR UNION. In the upcoming weeks, we will be circulating this list to all of our members.

I encourage you to STOP DOING BUSINESS with them and let them know that you, your families, and friends will not support any business that does not support you or your Association.

In addition to the two aforementioned strategic moves, I ask that you attend each monthly school committee meeting. The next one is on Monday, December 16^th at Keith Middle School and the meeting will start at 6:00 p.m.

During every school committee meeting there is a portion dedicated to public comment. I encourage you to sign up to speak. I think it is important for you to share your struggles and concerns directly with the school committee. They need to hear from you about what’s going on in our district. However, even if you choose not to speak, your attendance during this and upcoming meetings is vital to our cause.

To further demonstrate our solidarity I am asking that each of you wear something RED as a show of support for your Association and for those who speak at the meeting. This simple action will show your commitment to our school system and to each other.

I also encourage you to go beyond your colleagues and share your concerns with your friends and families. They need to know what is being done to our school system, our students, and you.  Encourage them to publicly support our cause.

Lastly, the creation of the District Climate Action Task Force will allow a means to easily convey your concerns to a group of union members whose dedicated function is to deliver your concerns directly to those who can initiate change.

This committee will serve as a liaison between our members and the leaders of our school system. While this committee will address many aspects of our member’s jobs, specifically we will focus on closely monitoring the safety of our schools, the progress of the education evaluation system, and address the many facets of the climate in our schools. To ensure that you are always well informed we will update our members as to the status of our progress.

Feel free to share concerns and suggestions directly with the task force by emailing us at nbeducators@yahoo.com. Please place in the subject line, District Climate Task Force.

We must remember that Friday’s meeting is just the beginning of a series of events to further initiate change and illicit support for our students, schools and union. Remember Together We Stand United and Strong.

Yours Truly,

Bryan Hancock

New Bedford Educators Association

Grievance Chairperson / Board Member / District Climate Task Force