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Don't forget to donate your
unused discretionary days to the sick bank!
If you have extras days at the
end of the year, they disappear. Instead, donate them to the BEA sick bank
and help out your colleagues who are dealing with extreme health challenges.
Once you donate, you are eligible to draw from the sick bank in your time of
need. This is an important benefit to exercise that shows our solidarity
with fellow members. We will send out a reminder and form to donate in
May.
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BEA Annual Meeting
Thursday, May
1, 2008 BHS Cafeteria
This meeting
is open to all members and will include this year’s reports from the President,
Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, Membership, Awards, Elections, and Grievance
Committee.
Heart
of Education
Wednesday, May 21
(date change)
Ethan Allen Club
Please join us as we celebrate our colleagues’ careers. Please let your BEA Representative know
ASAP if there is someone retiring or leaving from your building.
Livable Wage Victory!
Para-educators Win Huge Livable Wage Victory In Burlington
Burlington, VT – After a three year campaign, Burlington school para-educators
of the Burlington Education Association (BEA) won an agreement that will
bring its all of our members up to a livable wage by the end of the
contract. This agreement is being celebrated as a groundbreaking
victory.
“This
accomplishment is a victory for the entire community in so many ways,”
says Rebecca Smith, BEA President and teacher at Champlain Elementary
School. “First off it finally begins to recognize the incredible value
para-educators play in public education, as critical educators in our
schools. It is also an important anti-poverty measure, what better way
to fight poverty than to stop paying poverty wages. We hope workers
throughout the Burlington School District are going to receive a livable
wage.”
Click here for more on our Livable Wage
Victory!
The
campaign for livable wages for Burlington para-educators has not been
without struggle. It took three years of educating school board and
community members, as well as organizing
faith leaders, elected
officials, other union members and hundreds of Burlington residents to
show their support. “It is very exciting that we have finally reached an
agreement that will guarantee us a livable wage,” says para-educator
Ericka Scott. “However, this was an uphill fight that was met with
resistance on many occasions. It is great that the school district
realized they had to do this right thing and stop paying poverty wages.”
From the
beginning of the campaign for livable wages, it was clear that in
addition to being an issue of fighting poverty, it was also about gender
wage inequity. This livable wage victory for para-educators finally
helps to close the gender wage gap between municipal workers, who are
guaranteed a livable wage by ordinance and are mostly men, and para-educators,
who are predominately women and make less than a livable wage. “The
fact that the para-educators are predominately women and were not
guaranteed a livable wage was a clear example of gender wage inequity
that is still all too pervasive in our society,” says Colin Robinson,
Director of the Peace and Justice Center’s, Vermont Livable Wage
Campaign. “It is wonderful that this inequity if finally being corrected
within the Burlington school district.”
This
livable wage success for para-educators helps to ensure that Burlington
remains truly livable for more of its residents, however this is not the
case for everyone. The Burlington Livable City Coalition (BLCC), a
group of
community organizations and unions that works to ensure Burlington is
truly livable for all its residents, came together in part of this
struggle. “Coalition members came together recognizing that although
the City of Burlington was nationally acclaimed for its “livable”
status, it was quickly becoming more and more difficult for working
families to live within the city,” says James Haslam, Director of the
Vermont Workers’ Center – Jobs with Justice. “We think our city will be
a better city when families are not struggling in poverty, but all jobs
pay real livable wages and people can live with dignity. We hope our
victory will encourage other people to struggle for livable wages in
their workplaces.”
The
agreement will bring para-educators up to a livable wage over the next
four years.
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Indoor Air Quality
BEA President, Rebecca Smith,
addressed the Burlington Board of School Commissioners on March
11th, and again on April 1st, calling on them to take swift
action to address the environmental concerns at Burlington High
School.
The BEA called on the School
Board to take a proactive role and take some leadership to
remedy this problem that effects our students, staff, and
teachers. So far, all actions to date including keeping
ventilation systems running during winter months, replacing
filters, and repairs to broken equipment, have come only after
vehement insistence by member of the BEA.
Click here
to see the full statements delivered to the Board and
administration. The March 11th school board meeting was
also covered on Channel 3 News, Fox 44 News, and the Burlington
Free Press.
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SEI
Socio-Economic
Integration
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The BEA Action Committee is proud to represent teachers in this
important discussion of integration.
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The BEA fully supports SEI and is committed to finding implementation
solutions that work for all students and teachers in Burlington.
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Members of the
BEA Action Committee will be visiting each building to
gather teacher input, suggestions, concerns, and questions.
Click
here
to view our letter to Superintendent
Jeanne Collins and the Burlington Board of School Commissioners.
In response
to Superintendent Collins's recent communications and efforts to
realize a "dream school," the BEA Equity Action Committee urges
school board members and community members not to lose focus on
the whole purpose for the conversation - that is, socio-economic
integration. If whatever concept of a dream school we end
up with does not achieve a balance among our 6 neighborhood
schools, we have failed as a community to address a crucial
issue we have agreed needs to be tackled.
We plan to speak
with members of the school board and the superintendent to
present a comprehensive collection of questions. Our teacher
committee has many concerns that we need addressed in order to
continue to support the district's efforts. As
teachers, we feel that our colleagues teaching at Wheeler and
Barnes deserve some sort of assistance, relief, support, or
possible compensation while this process slowly unfolds. |
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Congratulations to the
winners of this year's
BEA
Diversity Placemat Competition!
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Send
Us Your Feedback!
We Want
To Hear From You!
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Your
Professional Association is Working for YOU
Teachers and
Para-Educators
Our Mission Statement is as
follows:
The Burlington
Education Association's Purpose is:
To work
for the welfare of school children, the advancement of education, and
the improvement of instructional opportunities for all.
To
develop and promote the adoption of such ethical practices, personnel
policies, and standards of preparation and participation as mark a
professional.
To unify
and strengthen the teaching profession and to secure and maintain
salaries, retirement, tenure, professional and sick leave, and other
working conditions necessary to support teaching as a profession.
The BEA believes in
celebrating the daily successes of our students. Our students Believe, Achieve, and Succeed on a daily basis.
We
are Proud to Teach!
Last Updated
April 12, 2008
Website created by Rebecca
Smith
visitors since 9/5/07
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