Colleagues,

On behalf of the NTU Executive Board and Staff, we want to wish you all a restful Winter Recess.  It has already been a difficult year in many ways, and as always, our members wen above and beyond to meet those challenges.    Just a few quick updates:

1. Contract Survey - We have received around 400 responses to our contract survey.  Negotiations are supposed to begin formally in January, and we will be having a membership meeting to update you soon after.  If there is one thing you do educationally during your break, FILL OUT THIS SURVEY!

2. Upcoming Workshops!  On January 16^th and 17^th w

It was brought to our attention that Aetna has increased our health insurance premiums by 17.85%. We are meeting with NPS and the other union heads tomorrow to discuss this untimely increase further. It is important to note that this it wasn't a negotiated or negotiable change.   In fact, we warned the then state-operated school board and Superintendent about Aetna in 2016 (see below emails). Short term savings were promised, but as we said at the time, "we hesitate to trust any claim [being] made by the district [about this change]."

The district's choice of providers and what premiums they

Click here for Update!

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In this issue:

1) Another huge legal victory!

2) NTU Coat and Toy Drive

3) Scholarship opportunities

and much more

Dear Brothers & Sisters:

Chris Cerf and his charter school advocates have lost their bid to have seniority removed from each and every one of you.  This has been a long battle, and it is not yet over as the Cerf allies are still trying to destroy your right to have a strong Teacher's Union by filing these cases throughout the country hoping that they someday will arise to the United States Supreme Court. 

Please note that this litigation was aimed specifically at the strongest Teacher's Union in New Jersey, the Newark Teachers Union and we won!  Your seniority has been secured!

In Solidarity,

Joh

Competency 4 remains such a big thorn for so many of us because of the added weight in our annuals. 

Year long indicators for Competency 4:

4d. Using Data. Teacher tracks assessment data to understand each student’s progress toward mastery and uses results to guide planning and instruction.

4e. Understanding of Growth. Teacher can articulate specifically (and with evidence) whether or not each student has internalized grade-level standards and, if not, what s/he still needs to learn.

4f. Progress Toward Goals. Data reflect that students are mastering the objectives of the focus areas, leading