NTU Updates

Colleagues,

1) Respect the Contract – Yesterday, President Abeigon sent out a notice to all school staff about upcoming “contract actions.”   Please review that email.  More information will be coming after Monday’s Building Rep Meeting.

2) Election Day - We have been receiving numerous calls regarding this coming presidential election day, Tuesday, Nov 8th. Here is the law regarding that day:

NJSA 18A:25-3. Teaching etc., on holidays not required
No teaching staff member shall be required to perform his duties on any day declared by law to be a public holiday and no deduction shall be made from

Colleagues,

1)      Paydates: Today is the first payday of the year.  It should be a seven day check for full time staff (per diem staff are paid a week behind).  If you have any issues with your check, please email Mike Maillaro at mmaillaro@newarkteachersunion.com.  Attached is the list of all the pay dates for the year from our upcoming calendar book.

2)      NTU Website – Reminder!  Our website is http://newark.nj.aft.org.  Our old website has been inactive for close to a year. 

3)      Political Action- Please call or email your legislators ASAP and throw your support behind Senate &

Colleagues,

1)    Negotiations Update – On June 2, the Negotiations Committee presented a confidential draft of our contract proposals to the NTU Executive Board for review and discussion.  The reaction to the committee's proposals by the Executive Board was overwhelmingly positive.  Our Negotiations Committee will be meeting one last time to make final edits suggested by the Executive Board before our first negotiations session with the NPS team on June 15. 

2)    Paycards - Colleagues, it was brought to our attention that many people have not activated their Paycards yet. If you already have

Colleagues,

 1)   Contract Update – We finally have negotiations dates!   Our negotiation team will be meeting with NPS’s team on June 10, 15, and 16 to present our proposals and to see what proposals NPS has for us.  This is YOUR LAST CHANCE to do the NTU contract survey.  Our negotiations team will be meeting one last time to finalize our proposals on May 24 and to present them to the Executive Board.

2) NTU Hall of Fame Dinner - On Wednesday, May 18, 2016, the NTU held our 18th Annual Hall of Fame Dinner. It was our most successful Hall of Fame Dinner yet!   We had close to 300 attendees and

Colleagues,

1)    Layoffs -  The NTU met with the district this week to discuss layoffs.  In the district’s initial plan (which has not yet been approved by Civil Service), they will be looking to layoff 23 NTU members in the following positions: 

·       Keyboarding Clerk 1 – 10

·       Keyboarding Clerk 2 – 7

·       Keyboarding Clerk 2 Bilingual - 2

·       Keyboarding Clerk 3 – 4

All layoffs will be done by seniority and will go into effect on July 22.  The district’s plan has not yet been approved by Civil Service; that will take up to a month.  These numbers could change depending on how many

Colleagues,

1)    Wednesday May 4 – National Walk-in

Next Wednesday, Newark will be joining with schools all across the country in participating in a National Walk-in!   See the attached flyer and we will have more information to come.

2) Negotiations Update – We have reached out to the Newark Public Schools inviting them to come to the table in two weeks to begin negotiations.  More information to come. 

3) DYFS Warning – The district, no matter how insignificant your conduct, will use any instance of alleged child abuse to bring tenure charges against you and attempt to have you terminated. 

Colleagues,

1)    April 26, SAVE THE DATE!  NPS ADVISORY BOARD MEETING

Come out and wear your school colors!

George W. Carver Elementary School

333 Clinton Pl,

Newark, NJ 07112

6:00 pm - 10:00 pm

✓ Cerf needs to start negotiating and stop dictating

✓ Get the lead out

✓ Hands off our Fringe Benefits Fund

✓ Stop all future cuts

✓ Reduce class size & return all aides and clerks

✓ Less testing

2) Negotiations Update – As of right now, the district has not formally responded to our request to begin negotiations.  Despite that, our negotiations committee has been meeting regularly and are finalizing our list of

Colleagues,

1)      Negotiations Update – Earlier this week, the NTU reached out to the Newark Public Schools of our intentions to formally begin negotiations.  Our contract negotiations committee is hard at work putting together all the proposals we received from the members in preparation for exchanging demands and proposals with the Newark Public schools.  We will continue to keep you as informed as possible without violating the confidentiality inherent in negotiations.

 2)      Community Schools – The NTU and AFT will be hosting a Community Schools Information session at Shabazz High School

Dear Colleagues,

1) Advisory Board Update – Carole A. Graves, past Newark Teachers Union President and Special Ed Teacher in the Newark Public Schools, has announced her candidacy for the Newark Public school Advisory Board election to be held April 19, 2016. Her campaign will be reaching out for volunteers.

2)      Water Update - No one is to drink or use any water from any NPS school, traditional or charter, until we hear from a reliable source that it's okay to do so. At this point, they simply cannot be trusted.  We are pushing for on-site lead testing of any student or staff member who

Dear Colleagues,

1) Rx UPDATE – Just this week, a judge ordered NTU members prescription medications "for attorneys’ eyes only." That means that Superintendent Cerf and his staff can't see what meds you're on.

2) NPS Advisory Board Meeting – Wednesday March 16! Arts High!  - The attack upon our prescription plan was Cerf’s way of saying that imposition is going to be his way of negotiating. We must take the time this weekend to make personal calls to active members and encourage them to come out to the next Advisory Board Meeting. We cannot and should not rely on other organizations to fight our