Letter from the President

Dear Colleague,

On behalf of the BTA Executive Board and Representative Council, I welcome you to a new school year. We hope it is a year filled with positive experiences for you, your students and their families. At the same time, as a union, we remain ever mindful these are difficult times for many of our members who suffered the loss of their positions at Southern Westchester BOCES this past spring. Hopefully we will all move forward together and strengthen our union.

It is difficult in a BOCES such as ours, with members located in facilities throughout Westchester County, working various hours of the day to assemble and share the most up to the minute news. Therefore, we would like to share the following information with you and also urge you to join our electronic means of communication (see the bullet with additional details). For now, please note the following:

• We have scheduled four General Membership meetings this school year in an effort to keep you better informed about union matters and have an opportunity to share and exchange ideas about the issues that affect us all at SWBOCES. The meetings will take place October 16th, January 22nd, March 19th and May 21st. Please see the enclosed flyer for additional information.

• We have taken to the road and have begun to visit all our BOCES facilities where you teach. I am available to visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays, generally before or after the school day. If you would like to coordinate my visit to your location, please contact me at martysommerbta@aol.com or call 845-661-3498.

• We are holding “BTA office hours” on Tuesdays and Thursdays after the end of the school day. We will meet at the Career Services Campus in Building B, Room 111. I, and at times, other officers and representatives will be available to speak with you in person regarding any issues or concerns you may have.  Please contact me if you would like to stop by and meet.

• We have been made aware of several issues concerning staff assignments, student schedules, the changes to the start and end times in various locations, and busing arrangements. We have been meeting with administration to address these concerns and bring resolution to what has been a difficult start of the school year for many of your colleagues and students. Please continue to contact the officers and building representatives via personal e-mail regarding these matters and other issues. Please check our website, www.bocesta.org for a listing of the officers and building representatives.

• We have signed off on the SWBOCES APPR Plan and it has been approved by the NYSED. This will be our first year of implementation and we anticipate facing problems and addressing concerns along the way. BTA members of the SWBOCES APPR Committee have scheduled meeting with administration throughout the school year to plan, review and monitor our APPR activities. In the near future you will receive information from SWBOCES as to how to share your concerns with the entire committee. In the meantime, continue to write via personal e-mail to BTA members of the APPR Committee listed on our website.

• We can report that of the more than one hundred lay-offs that occurred last spring, a majority of individuals have been recalled to their positions. In July several teachers and teacher aides had their lay-offs rescinded, followed by a late August recall of teachers and teacher aides. Presently eight teachers and twenty-one teacher aides have not been called back to work. We will continue to advocate for their return as warranted by the enrollment of additional students, class size and teacher-student ratios.

• We continue to work under our expired Teachers’ Contract and Teacher Aides’ Contract. The Triborough Amendment of the Taylor Law maintains these contracts remain in effect until a successor contract has been approved. The ALC Teachers’ Contract is due to expire at the end of this school year. We plan to share more information concerning the contracts in the near future.

• We are adding more features to our website and ask your patience as we undergo change. Recently we added all SWBOCES job announcements under Current Happenings. Our yearlong calendar, which will be updated as new events arise, has been added too. Keep checking the website.

• We hope to enjoy each other’s company throughout the year in events outside of the school day. Please note we will be gathering for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk on Sunday, October 20th at Manhattanville College.  Please see the attached flyer. We hope you will join us.

• We continue to gather our members’ personal e-mail addresses to create an e-mail distribution list for BTA matters not to be discussed on the BOCES server and other pertinent union matters.  To date more than one-hundred fifty members have responded. If you have not already done so, please send your personal e-mail address to Melissa Barreto at melissabarreto@optonline.net .

Your involvement and support of the BTA is always welcome. Please let us know ways in which we can continue to further enhance our efforts on behalf of the membership and our students.

In Solidarity, on behalf of the BTA Executive Board and Representative Council,

Marty Sommer
BTA President