April First Friday

What: First Friday Monthly BEA Social

When: Friday,  April 10th - After School (4:00)

Where: 21 Nickels 
                  21 Nichols Ave, Watertown

Why: Opportunity to connect with Belmont colleagues. 

State Budget Hearings – March 24 and April 13 – Can You Testify?

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March 19, 2015



TO:                  Local Association Presidents

MTA Board of Directors

MTA Staff



FROM:             Barbara Madeloni, President



SUBJECT:         State Budget Hearings – March 24 and April 13 – Can You Testify?



As you know, Governor Charlie Baker’s budget proposal for public education, from pre-kindergarten through graduate school, does little to help our schools, colleges and communities address the increasingly difficult job of providing the education that our students deserve.  The governor's budget (H1) is now before the state Legislature.  The House and then the Senate will be coming out with their own budget proposals in the coming weeks.

See information below on how we can make sure our legislators know that we face serious challenges and that we cannot do our jobs without adequate state funding for our schools, colleges and communities.

Please take a moment to read the notice to see if you or other members of your local or chapter can attend one of the hearings, and/or if you can send written testimony.  If you send written testimony to the Ways and Means Committee, please also send a copy to your state representative and senator.

Thanks for your help.

Joint Committee on Ways and Means FY2016 Budget Hearings



Education and Local Aid

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Beginning at 11 a.m.

Greenfield Community College Auditorium

Greenfield, MA



Public Hearing (testimony taken on all budget issues):

Monday, April 13, 2015

Beginning at 10 a.m.

Gardner Auditorium

State House, Boston, MA





Education and Local Aid - March 24 - Greenfield Community College

This hearing will be chaired by House Ways and Means Vice Chair Rep. Steve Kulik (D-Worthington) and Senator Benjamin Downing (D-Pittsfield).  The committee will hear testimony from the secretary of education, the Department of Early Education and Care, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Board of Higher Education, and the public.  This year, the hearing will open at 11 a.m. with testimony on education and local aid by invited organizations, including the MTA, and then by members of the public.  At 1 p.m. agency testimony will begin.



Hearing on All Budget Issues - April 13 - State House, Boston

This hearing will take only public testimony and will begin at 10 a.m.



Logistics

If you would like to testify at the hearing on March 24 in Greenfield, please plan on arriving no later than 11 a.m.  Bring at least two copies of your written testimony to submit to the committee.  Verbal testimony should be limited to three minutes.



To let us know you are coming, or if you have any questions about the hearings or testimony, please e-mail Julie Johnson at jjohnson@massteacher.org, or call her at 617-878-8315.  If you want to submit written testimony, e-mail your testimony to Julie and she will deliver it to the committee.  Testimony can also be submitted directly to the committee no later than April 13.  E-mail the House chair at Brian.Dempsey@mahouse.gov or mail to Chairman Brian Dempsey, House Ways and Means Committee, State House, Room 243, Boston, MA  02133.



Testimony

Your testimony should be as specific and personal as possible, explaining how the state budget cuts over the past years have affected you, your fellow educators, your students, department or school/college or university.  Have increased class sizes, lack of materials and programs, loss of support personnel, libraries and the arts, affected you?  Explain why increased funding for education is necessary to be able to provide the schools our children deserve.

See the MTA website, www.massteacher.org, for information about the governor’s budget, including:

For K-12, insufficient funding of Chapter 70, the elimination of grants for full-day kindergarten; cuts to the special education circuit breaker and regional school transportation; and the combining and cutting of other important grant programs, such as those that go to our Gateway Cities.

For higher education, insufficient funding for campuses and proposed cuts to the GIC, which would increase health insurance costs for state employees:

http://www.massteacher.org/issues_and_action/education_funding.aspx.

Also, see the Mass Budget & Policy Center's analysis:  http://www.massbudget.org/report_window.php?loc=Analyzing_the_Governors_Budget_for_FY_2016.html

MTA Next Generation Leadership Program

The MTA is now accepting applications for one of its newest programs: MTA Next Generation Leadership Program! 

Click for more information and eligibility requirements. This program will promote leadership attitudes, skills and knowledge that will help participants to enhance their ability to be visible, effective union leaders at the local, state and national levels.

Areas of study include: 

Leadership

• You will define you vision for union leadership.
• You will identify you leadership style and learn to work with others.
• You will cultivate the ability to inspire, organize and build coalitions in order to successfully achieve common goals.

Strategy

• You will become more a more strategic leader by identifying problems and identifying solutions while creating opportunities for members to understand and use their collective power.

Solidarity

• We will learn how to plan, act and support each other to serve the needs of our individual membership groups along with the MTA and our communities.

Schedule and Commitment:

All sessions will be held in the Framingham, MA area except as noted below.
         •     Sunday, August 2nd to Thursday, August 6th (MTA Summer Conference)
         •     Friday, October 16th at 4:00 pm to Sunday, October 18th at 1:00pm
         •     Friday, February 26th to Saturday, February 27th; times TBD

BUDGET ALERT – FUNDING FOR HIGHER ED CUT

We are asking you to contact your legislators right away to help make sure that contract promises made to thousands of MTA members working across the University of Massachusetts system are kept.

New contracts were agreed to and ratified in December – but now UMass President Robert Caret is refusing to implement the agreements, despite having received funding for them.

Governor Charlie Baker holds the same position as the one taken by former Governor Deval Patrick: that UMass received funding for all of its contracts in the budget for the current fiscal year.

Now Baker has filed legislation that includes language supporting the view that UMass has adequate funding in place to pay the salaries negotiated in the new contracts, as well as agreements covering UMass Lowell employees that the Legislature approved in the fall.

Baker’s legislation is expected to be taken up within the next few days – and we need our legislators to support it and ensure that UMass understands that a deal is a deal.

Having these contracts take effect as soon as possible is a matter of fairness that should concern all MTA members.  

Thank you for taking a moment to support public higher education and the people who make it possible at UMass.

Please click here to send your message now.

Discuss Legislation and Education with Representative Dave Rogers

Representative Dave Rogers

Wants to Discuss Legislation and Education with Us

Tuesday, March 17th

7:00 PM

Chenery Middle School

95 Washington St., Belmont

Community Room

Representing all of Belmont and parts of Arlington and Cambridge, Dave is a very

strong advocate for public education. He recently sponsored one and co-sponsored

four of the bills in MTA’s 2015 Legislative Package.

Dave is very interested in discussing the interaction between legislation and our

classrooms.   Please come and meet him.

For more information, contact Mary Cummings, mcummings@massteacher.org

or Belmont Political Action Coordinator, Andy MacAulay, andymaczone@hotmail.com

Take the Statewide Time on Testing Survey

Tell Us about Testing Time: Go to this Survey Link The 2014 MTA Annual Meeting New Business Item 1 requires that the MTA work with Mass Partners for Public Schools to determine how much time students and  educators spend on testing and test preparation. Please click on this link http://www.mtasurveys.org/se/0B87CA7D3F4893DB  to complete this  confidential survey. The survey opened on Monday, March 2, 2015, and over 4,000 teachers, specialists, paraprofessionals, principals and superintendents have completed it as of 12:00 noon on March 4! The  purpose is to determine how much time teachers, paraprofessionals and school-based administrators spend on the preparation for and administration of state, district, school and classroom assessments and how much time students spend taking tests. Educators in PARCC districts should complete this survey. Questions that cite "MCAS" apply to both MCAS or PARCC test preparation time. Mass Partners will compile the data and develop a report and recommendations based on educator responses. The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete. Thank you.

Be Heard!

Use your "teacher voice" to speak out for the kind of schools our students deserve

Be heard! This winter, take advantage of the many opportunities to use your "teacher voice" to speak out for the kind of schools our students deserve.

ESEA Reauthorization: Get It Right

Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is underway in Congress. Please let your legislators in the U.S. House and Senate know that we want less testing and more opportunities for learning - and that states should be held accountable for giving all children the schools they deserve.

Join educators in the fight to get ESEA right! Call Congress today at 866-331-7233 or click here to email them.

Commonwealth Conversations

New Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg has launched a listening tour across the Commonwealth so that the senator from each district can meet with constituents to hear which issues people are concerned about.

Speak up as an individual. Or better yet, bring a group of educators and community members to stand together - for public education, for the well-being of our communities and against mandate madness. The impact of one person speaking is multiplied when we stand together.

Click here for dates and locations near you.

Foundation Budget Review Commission

This is what computers looked like in 1993, when the state's formula for distributing aid to local school districts was established as part of the Education Reform Act.

Since that time, the foundation budget — the centerpiece of the funding formula — has not been systemically re-examined in light of state curriculum frameworks, MCAS and other key elements of the 1993 law.

Until now.

The Foundation Budget Review Commission is holding hearings around the state. This is a chance for teachers and school staff to let the commission know what your working conditions are like and how to improve them. After all, your working conditions are your students’ learning conditions.Consider attending and telling your stories. Let the commission know what educators need in order to give children the schools they deserve.

Click here to learn more about the job of the commission and view upcoming hearing dates.

Join the Conversation

Join the conversation with other educators from across Massachusetts onFacebook and Twitter. These social media networks are a great place to learn the latest education news and share ideas with other MTA educators.