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Writer's pictureMike Zilles

NTA EBulletin: November 3, 2024

Thrive24 Update


Some notes on the upcoming Thrive 24 professional development days.


1. Buses are a convenience for employees: If you would prefer not to deal with driving into South and the parking issues, then the buses are there for you to use. You are NOT required to use the buses. You may simply drive to Newton South High School and park in one of the lots there, or on the street. As communicated, Newton police will not be ticketing cars parked on the street. 


2. Attendance is mandatory: While you are not required to use the buses, you are required to arrive on time and attend your scheduled workshops. If you are going to be absent, you should treat the day as you would any work day, and record your absences on Frontline.


3. Bring multiple layers of clothing. Temperatures vary a great deal from classroom to classroom at Newton South. 


4. We are using our colleagues' classrooms. Please be kind to your colleagues who work at Newton South and Oak Hill. They will need to use their classrooms the next day. Please do your best to leave their classrooms as well-organized and clean as possible.


5. There will be an opportunity for feedback. I know that there are many concerns about this first full day professional development. The NTA will create a survey for members to complete to capture your experiences, both positive and critical.



Kindergarten Aides Update

 

The Kindergarten aide hearing before a superior court judge has been scheduled for March 27, 2025. After the hearing, the judge could take as little as a couple weeks to as long as a few months to issue a decision. 


Know Your Contract

Chris Walsh, Chair

Professional Rights and Responsibilities Committee


Mike and I are charged in our roles to protect the contractual rights of employees under our Collective Bargaining Agreements. In fact, we have a legal duty to protect those rights. The law also gives us the right to obtain information from the employer--information that we need to represent our members.


There are two issues of contract compliance that we are addressing with the district presently, and which were brought up in Mike’s eBulletin last week, that I would like to give you additional information about —  salary placement and use of sick leave and the sick leave bank.


Sick Leave and the Sick Leave Bank


Our contracts for Units A, B, C, and E have identical language regarding sick leave and the sick leave bank. This fact is not an accident. The NTA has worked hard over decades of negotiations to attain and keep these rights so that all employees are treated equitably.


The contracts says that, “Sick leave with pay is intended to cover the employee’s own incapacitation due to sickness or injury.” There is no language in the contract that limits the number of days of sick leave that can be utilized. There is, however, language that requires medical documentation to support the need for sick leave.  When an employee is out for six or more consecutive days, they can be asked for a note. If a sick leave continues for more than 45 days, they can be asked for an updated note.


Employees also enjoy the benefit of a sick leave bank.  Who can access the sick bank?  The language is clear:

  • There shall be a sick leave bank for use by eligible employees covered by this Agreement who have exhausted their own sick leave. Eligible employees are members who qualify under one of the following circumstances:  member with a serious illness.”

This bank exists because every employee donates one day each year to this bank — that adds up to more than 2,000 days available each year in the sick leave bank.  The donated days are for use in the current year and do not roll over, so any days left unused at the end of the year simply disappear.  In Mike’s and my combined experience with the sick leave bank, there has never been a year when we have even come close to exhausting the days in the sick bank. 


The bank is administered by a “Sick Bank Committee” consisting of four members, two appointed by the superintendent and two from the NTA.  Current members are Joany Santa, Liam Hurley, Mike Zilles, and Chris Walsh.  In assessing an application for time from the sick leave bank, the committee considers just two factors, per the contract:

  1. Adequate medical evidence of serious illness; and

  2. Prior utilization of all eligible sick leave.

Historically, if these two criteria are satisfied, the sick bank access is granted. Over the years, grants of time from the sick leave bank have varied from grants of just a few days to grants of a full school year or more.   The longer grants are rare, and usually involve a member suffering from a debilitating or chronic illness. And this is the reason the bank exists — through the generosity of colleagues, those of us in the most need are taken care of.  


Below is a summary of most recent years of sick leave bank usage for which we have data.

Sick Leave Bank Usage FY 2019 through FY 2022

 

What about FMLA?  Doesn’t that limit sick leave time?


Often a member may hear from the HR office that their leave for personal illness (sick leave) is an “FMLA leave” or that they are not eligible for an “FMLA leave” or that they have exhausted their “FMLA leave”. While any of these statements may be technically correct, they have no bearing on your contractual right for individual sick leave.



The Federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a law that sets out the minimum rights to leave an employer must provide. It also obligates the employer to give certain notifications to an employee of their rights under FMLA. This is the purported reason why HR references FMLA in their communications around sick leave. We would prefer if they also informed members that their contractual rights under our collective bargaining agreement provide access to sick leave that exceeds FMLA, but they don’t. We think this is misleading on their part.


As a result of actions on the part of the district at the beginning of this year that have denied members with serious medical conditions access to the sick leave bank, as well as their failure to provide us with clear and complete information regarding sick leave bank applications from last year and into this year, we have grown concerned that there may be some applications that have not been address properly.  We have grievances pending regarding the two members we know about who have been denied access, but don’t know if there are more. If you have filed a request for time from the sick leave bank at any time since July 1, 2023, and have been told you do not have access or that your request has been denied, please email Chris Walsh at treasurer@newteach.org.


Salary Placement, Units A and B


As most of you understand, in Units A and B there are both steps and lanes in the salary schedule. Steps relate to years of experience and lanes relate to the level of education. The highest lane is the Doctorate/Masters Plus 60.  The Masters Plus 60 category was added in 2012 to allow “members who earn 60 graduate credits beyond their Master’s degree . . . to earn the same as members who hold a Doctorate.” Before and after that language was added, employees holding doctorate degrees were placed in the doctorate lane.


In June 2024, in connection with advising a potential employee as to contractual rights in initial salary placement, the NTA learned that the district may have abandoned placing some people with doctorates in the doctorate lane when they were hired. The potential employee was told, “as early as 2020, employees with doctorate degrees not in the educational field (such as a juris doctorate) have not been placed on the doctorate salary scale.” This was news to the NTA, and indicates a contract violation.


While the details regarding the particular applicant are the subject of an unfair labor practice charge brought by the NTA against the district, we remain concerned that for some members the contract may not have been followed when they were hired. We have requested information from the district to try to discover any such violations, but to date have not received responses that are complete or meaningful. So, we ask for your help. If you had a doctorate degree when you were hired by Newton Public School, we would like you to complete this form to provide us with information regarding your initial salary placement. 


 

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In solidarity, 

Mike Zilles, President

Newton Teachers Association

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