Week of September 12, 2022

At last week's Board of Education meeting, three MOUs were approved.

Franklin Street Paraeducators MOU

Currently, Franklin Street School has not reopened yet due to delays getting materials. The programs, including Brentwood, are currently being hosted by the Boys and Girls Club. Due to scheduling, the preschool programs have been reduced by one-half hour each, or a total of one hour per day. This MOU guarantees the paraeducators will be paid their regular hours even though the day is reduced. I would like to thank the District for recognizing this and proactively suggesting this MOU. This MOU was approved unanimously by the Board.

Teaching an Extra Class MOU

This MOU was used last year, predominantly at the high school, to cover sections of classes due to vacant teaching positions. The MOU reminds intact from last year with one change. Last year, teachers covered under this MOU were only paid for days they taught the class. Days there were out on approved sick, personal, or other leave were not covered. The modification clarifies that teachers will be paid for each day they are responsible for the class and that now includes planning and grading in addition to the actual teaching. This MOU passed 5-1 with Mrs. Johnson voting no.

Initial Placement on the Salary Schedule

Since 1986, the district has been using an internal procedure to place new hires on the salary schedule. If you are coming to Nashua with no break in teaching service, all of your years of service was counted, and you were placed accordingly. If you had a break in service of more than five years, none of the previous service was credited to the new hire. This predominantly impacted our female colleagues, many who worked in Nashua, left to have children, and came back and started over at Step 0. This procedure has been the bane of my existence since I was Vice President. Previous negotiations have been unsuccessful in undoing this procedure and previous district administrations were not interested in discussing changing the procedure. However, this MOU will undo this practice effective with the 2021-2022 school year. I would have loved to have had this cover everyone dating back, but this is what I could negotiate. This is a major win for our local moving forward and will impact current teachers. This MOU was reviewed by the Teachers' Negotiating Team and the Executive Board. While there is the MOU, the district could have unilaterally stopped using the procedure. This MOU was approved unanimously by the Board.