A critical bill is before the Massachusetts legislature: HB-2227, "An Act to Promote Collaboration at Designated Schools and Districts." We all need to contact our legislators to encourage their support of the bill.
Here are both links to the House and Senate of Massachusetts.
http://www.malegislature.gov/People/House
http://www.malegislature.gov/People/Senate
CONCORD — Several hundred protestors, including many parents, gathered in Monument Square on Tuesday to rally around Concord teachers who contend their voice has been bullied into silence by the school administration.
The catalyst for the protest was the decision by Thoreau Elementary School Principal Kelly Clough not to renew the contract of veteran third grade teacher and Concord Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy.
The opinion article entitled Lift the charter school cap (opinion April 30) acknowledges that persistent poverty-based achievement gaps exist among students in Massachusetts. One of Governor Patrick’s reports acknowledged that poverty is pernicious.
When poverty may cause students to have inadequate dental and medical care, live in sub-standard housing, have nutritional deficiencies, or be exposed to violence in the neighborhood, their education suffers. Imagine the impact a murder in the neighborhood has on young children.
As part of the AFT-MA Election 2013 program, we are once again doing a full scale worksite literature campaign for our endorsed US Senate candidate, Ed Markey. We ran a similar type of program in the Fall of 2012 when we elected Elizabeth Warren to the Senate, it basically offers information on positions that our endorsed candidate has taken and sometimes even offers a comparison between him and his opponent and how they differ on the issues that matter most to us.
LAWRENCE — State health inspectors will return to the Guilmette School next week after teachers expressed fears that the mold infestation uncovered two years ago survived a $3.5 million cleanup, the president of the teachers union said yesterday.
“There are teachers who said they do have concerns, that they have trouble breathing in their classrooms,” union president Frank McLaughlin said after he and about 40 of Guilmette’s teachers and staff met with school Superintendent Jeff Riley to discuss the issue. “They say they crack their windows every day.”
LAWRENCE — The cost of wiping the mold infestation from the Guilmette School jumped to $7.5 million last night when city councilors voted to borrow another $1 million to finish the work after an hour of questioning that focused on whether the mold is gone for good.
That concern re-emerged last week when another outbreak of mold was discovered in a first-grade classroom, sickening a teacher, causing the relocation of 21 students and prompting a cleanup costing as much as $10,000.