Welcome to the BEA 

Burlington Education Association

Making a difference by imagining the possibilities. 

Contact Us    Become a Member    Get Involved!    Dues    BEA Line       

BEA Links

 

BEA Committees

BEA Action Com.

Executive Board

Rep Council

Other Committees

 

BEA Services

Grievance

Workshops

 

BEA Events

Awards

Special Events

 

Related Links

Schools

Links

BSD

VT-NEA

 

 

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.

 

 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. 

 

 

 

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.

SEI

Socio-Economic Integration

  • The BEA Action Committee is proud to represent teachers in this important discussion of integration.

  • The BEA fully supports SEI and is committed to finding implementation solutions that work for all students and teachers in Burlington.

  • 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.

 

 

Congratulations to the winners of this year's

BEA Diversity Placemat Competition!

 

 

Send Us Your Feedback! 

We Want To Hear From You!

 

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

www.burlingtoneducators.org

Hit Counter

visitors since 9/5/07