GEA Update, August 26, 2020 - MOU (Memorandum of Understanding)

 Dear Colleagues:

We are very close to an agreed upon MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the School Committee.  It may be completed tonight and ready for membership to view, however we did want to update you on some things that were agreed upon so that you may begin to plan accordingly.  

I toured all three buildings today with Superintendent Jacobs and Facilities Manager, Mike Anderson.  I saw first hand all the safety protocols put into place and the PPE (Protective Personal Equipment) available to all members.  All HVAC systems were updated and air quality measures put in place.  REMINDER:  If you want a shield protector for your desk, you need to contact Mike Anderson directly. 

       2.   The child care program set up for the children of teachers at Perley is a go and   Superintendent Jacobs is putting on the final touches.  (She will be updating membership about this in an email either later on today or tomorrow.

       3.  The Professional Development (PD) days are set and the Negotiating Team was successful in getting teachers the option of participating in most of the PD days remotely.  The PD schedule will be coming out shortly.

OPTIONAL REMOTE PD DAYS are August 31st, September 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 8th and 9th.  Again, you can participate on these days from home or go to your respective building for the training.  The option is yours.

IN PERSON PD DAYS are September 10th, 11th, 14th and 15th.  Everyone must attend, in person.

September 10th is shaping up to be a meet and greet day for Penn Brook and for the incoming 7th grade students and Freshman Students.  Administration feels that this is extremely important.  The GEA agreed to the meet and greets if they can be conducted outside (Weather permitting) and with full PPE.  The meet and greets at Penn Brook would be roughly 1/2 hour in length and spaced throughout the day.  The incoming 7th graders and freshman classes would be a little bit longer due to potential tours of the buildings, schedules being handed out, etc.  If conducted inside due to weather, administration has assured me that all safety protocols would be in place.  We are still discussing rain date options.  More information to follow.

      4.  All teachers will need to be teaching from their school rooms beginning on September 16th.  If you have an extenuating circumstance that would require you to teach remotely from home, you are to contact Superintendent Jacobs directly and she will try to work with you.

       5.  The Negotiating Team was successful in helping all leaves of absences remain fully paid.  The School Committee agreed to allow members to utilize their sick time to make up the difference in pay of what the Covid Acts or the FMLA Acts do not cover.  These acts will pay members their first two weeks salary in full but then drop down to only 60 or 65 % of your base salary.  Members may now use 1/3 of 1 sick day to make up the difference for each day out, which means for every 3 days out on your leave, you would utilize 1 sick day until your leave concludes or you run out of sick time.

     6.  The School Committee agreed to set up two separate sick banks for members who are out on leave due to a medical issue related to not being able to come into the buildings because of covid or if a member is out on leave because of a child care issue due to covid.  Members can voluntarily donate up to two days for the bank(s) for those members out on leave that have run out of sick time or will run out of sick time before their leave concludes.  More information to follow.

     7.  The School Committee has agreed to pay a $2,000 stipend each for the year to four Special Needs Teachers that will teach in person to the high needs special education students that need to come into the schools for in person learning.  I have spoken directly to the four teachers involved with this clause.  The Negotiating Team felt strongly that if members who are going to be working with students that cannot wear masks due to their special needs and need to be taught in person then these teachers need to be acknowledged.     

  The rest of the MOU is cut and dry agreed upon job related language.   To be clear, we did not get everything we wanted but the Negotiating Team and E Board feel that the MOU is fair and will be presented to full membership to be voted upon electronically sometime this week.  More information to follow.

Furthermore, this is only the agreed upon MOU for the remote learning portion of the year.  The Negotiating Team still needs to bargain the impact of the hybrid learning portion.

I want to thank the Negotiating Team and the Executive Board for their help in getting to this point and I want to thank membership for your patience throughout this process.  We still have work to be done but we will get through this together.

Thanks

Joe   

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