NTA December, 2007 Representative Assembly Meeting

The following represents some of the discussion that took place during December's Representative Assembly meeing.

Surveillance Cameras Cheryl Turgel, president of the NTA recently received a phone call from a NSHS student asking how she felt about the five surveillance cameras that have been set up at South. Cheryl and other members of the NTA knew absolutely nothing about this. Where did the funding for these cameras come from? Who will be watched? The cameras have not yet been activated. Will they be activated? Franklin Elementary School already has a surveillance camera set up facing the front door.  (In some cases, like at Franklin, these cameras are there because access to a door is not visible in the school’s front office.)

Staff Covering Lunch At some schools, staff has been asked to cover lunch. It’s usually an aide that is asked. It’s one thing to help occasionally, but another when it’s habitual. This is totally unfair! NTA members need to be paid when this occurs. (A building aide can be asked, but not when she/he is already in charge of a child or a classroom.) A building aide can be reassigned to help instead of being in charge of a child. The question we are asking is why is the lunch program, which has worked for many years, not working now? What has changed in the way Newton Public Schools is hiring our “lunch matrons?” At one Newton public school, a SPED aide is consistently being pulled to cover first lunch. Coverage for the child(ren) is not provided. As to compliance rules, education plans are written so that there is a little leeway in direct services provided. Any child in the Newton Public School system should be able to be without direct services at some points during the school day. Therefore, this is not an issue of noncompliance.

Were NTA Members Safe during the Last Big Snowstorm? There was recently a snowstorm on an early release Thursday. Afternoon meetings were cancelled and elementary staff was encouraged to go home after the 12:30 dismissal of children. At NNHS there was a dismissal of 1PM, due to parent conference schedules. The parent conferences were cancelled for that day. This was not the case with middle schools and NSHS. Student programs were not cancelled, so staff had to stay; this included programs that occurred after normal dismissal time. Cheryl has complained to Superintendent Young about this, as NTA believes that its members need to be kept safe! We believe that middle school and high school students are old enough to go home by themselves, if necessary. NTA members need to have their safety considered. While people with jobs in Boston were told to go home early due to horrific weather conditions, NTA members were made to stay on the job. There are many staff members with long commutes! Dr. Young says that staff with really long commutes should make arrangements with the principal to have their classes and/or activities covered so they can leave. In reality, these staff members had to stay late in the day, and then were on the road for many hours, trying to get home. There is no policy to dismiss students early due to weather. We all knew this storm was coming, and perhaps it would have been best to cancel school the night before, or announce an early dismissal time in the morning. This most likely will not occur, as there was a time Dr. Young cancelled school the night before based on weather reports, and the following day turned out to be beautiful. Obviously his choice was made with the right intent, but the parent community found fault with his decision, none-the-less.

Proposition 2 1/2 Override Vote & its Implications The NTA is very worried about an upcoming Proposition 2 1/2 Override vote. If Newton does not get the extra revenue generated by this proposition 2 1/2 override vote, NTA has been informed that there may be approximately 100 positions cut from the schools. In many cases, class sizes will increase significantly. Some voters are concerned that money raised through an override will go to NNHS, and may feel enough has already been dedicated to the new Newton North, causing them to vote “no”. The mayor has the ability to earmark this new revenue, but at this point, he is not indicating exactly where the money will go.

Cover for an Absent Teacher? Did you get Paid? An aide who covers for a teacher who is absent should get paid an extra $40. This is cumulative; the time equal to a day’s coverage can occur over several different days. Be sure to remind the school secretary and be diligent about looking at your paycheck!

Now I'm a Webmaster, Too??? Some of our schools are expecting teachers to create and maintain their own web pages, including daily homework, so that parents have access. Since when is a teacher also a webmaster?

Gradebooks Viewable by Parents? Some school systems are now using internet-based grade-books that are viewable by parents. This could be a nightmare in terms of parents attempting to micromanage teachers to help raise grades of their children.

Not Enough Staff, Classes get Cancelled At the high schools, if enough staff is absent, there is not enough ISS staffing available to cover all classes. What happens? With no teacher, there’s no class. Freshmen classes are covered first, with senior classes the most likely to be cancelled. Why is there no longer enough ISS?

Contracts at each School - Waiting for Online Version While we have printed copies of our contract in each building, they are not yet online. We are expecting them to appear in the FirstClass HR folder within a week.

Buy Back Years There is a proposed bill coming up for the State Senate. It would allow our members to buy back up to three years that they may have spent teaching in private schools. Currently buying back these years has been denied to most of our members. There are multiple cases pending in the courts, in which our members have appealed these denials for various reasons. In many cases, this private school teaching took place in schools that were practically fully state-funded. We are asking all of our members to contact their State Senators to have them vote in favor of Bill #S1631 – Buy Back bill.

On Hold for Now...

The IRS - Getting Paid Twelve Months of the Year; Taxed like We Work Ten Months of the Year Newton educators get paid 12 months of the year, but we are taxed as though we get paid 10 months. It is possible that in the year 2009-2010, there could be a 20% penalty on the deferred part of one’s earnings (i.e. summer pay) if one doesn’t report this to the IRS. Newton has been attempting to work with the IRS so that Newton educators will be in compliance with this ruling. If and when this law goes into effect, any educator who does not report this information could receive a 20% penalty on the deferred part of their compensation. For us, that is the sum of money that we receive in the summer months. Human Resources is responsible to make sure the paper work gets done for this and to make sure that we are in compliance with the law. As always, our Human Resources office is making every effort to protect our interests wherever possible.