John Hilliard writes in the Boston Globe.
Newton’s new mayor has prioritized outreach and zoning overhaul during her first year in office, but there’s another big task ahead: negotiating contracts with unions that backed her opponent in last year’s election.
With the new Tax law, citizens now more than ever are going to be extremely sensitive to property tax hikes…
whatever it takes to avoid future tax hikes…
The new school employee union contracts should contain clauses where both parties agree broad terms regarding a change in high school start times. We don’t want to be in a situation where the SC votes in December 2018 to start high school later in 2019 and a roll out date is pushed back to 2010 while contracts are renegotiated. Mayor Fuller is very organized and methodical. This is probably already part of the school committee planning, and I bet the SC and Mayor’s office have already put this on agenda. Right?
If you think we are 5 years behind schedule on starting high school at a healthy time, pleases email me at [email protected] to be included on an action email list.
Jeffrey – HS start time is an issue that needs to be negotiated with the NTA. Whether it should be part of the regular contract negotiations is another question.
Taxes are on my mind as well, but being able to recruit and retain the best teaching candidates is another issue that the city must grapple with. In this day and age with young people graduating with crushing student debt, the systems with the best salary scales will be in the position to attract the best candidates.
I am in complete support of competitive compensation of teachers, but also want a better way to measure teaching quality.
I would also add some form of teacher evaluation (by students / parents). We had years with some of the best teachers, and some wasted years. I would like NPS to have some clause around ongoing assessment (like they do in colleges), and broader polling of parents before a teacher gets tenure.
NTA president Mike Zilles is on the high school schedule committee, precisely so that we can be out ahead of any potential union issues with whatever proposal the committee comes up with. We hope to avoid messy issues of implementation.
Jane, high school start times are totally unrelated to taxes. The NPS spent a lot of time researching 6 scenarios. The least expensive option adds no extra expense to the school budget. The most expensive adds 1/3 of 1% to the budget.
1/3 of 1% for something that is proven to improve classroom performance, lower the achievement gap, reduce automobile accidents, decrease risky behavior such as drug use, increase physical health, and increase mental health? Only two words can describe it. NO BRAINER (in caps, no mistake). Now is the time to focus on the science.
The City Council has already voiced support for this change. If the SC wants the expensive option, I bet the Council could chip in a chunk of the 1/3 of 1%. Presumably, looking ahead, the SC is already talking to the Council. Let’s pretend the Council can’t help. Squeezing the cost of the most expensive option by increasing class size means going from an average of 22 students per class to 22.07 students per class. Again, this assumes the most expensive option.
Two words. NO BRAINER.
Jeffrey-I made two entirely unrelated comments. One was about the wisdom of putting HS start time in a contract. That was in reference to your comment.
The second comment – in no way related to the first- was a brief statement about the need to have competitive wages in order to attract and retain excellent teachers.