January BEA Newsletter 2010

Health Care

• Taxation of Cadillac Insurance Plans has been delayed to 2018

      Elections for BEA officers for 2010 – 2011 school year

• BEA elections are coming soon (see head rep for details)

      Letter from Superintendent

• Letter requesting give backs has been received by the union President Brian Kwas

      Board of Education Budget News

• 3 scenario’s were presented at the BOE meeting held on

Wednesday January 20,2010

Scenario#1  5.62% increase : this proposal allows all teachers in grades k-8 to be in compliance with BOE class size guidelines – it requires maintaining current staffing as well as adding the following:

• One 2nd grade teacher
• One 4th grade teacher
• Increase hours of remedial math teacher at HHES
• One guidance counselor at WMS(grade 5)
• One half time literacy teacher at WMS
• One remedial reading teacher at BHS

Scenario #2  4.58% increase : this proposal would fund existing programs as is
                    and maintain status quo

• All staff would keep current positions- no layoffs
• No new positions from 5.62 budget would be funded      
  

Scenario #3 2.9% increase : this proposal would eliminate all new staff proposed in 5.62 scenario, reduce existing staff, reduce lunch/recess monitors, reduce co-curriculars, impact textbook budget, reduce supplies, materials and furniture requests
Suggested cuts were in these areas:

• One 2nd grade teacher
• One 4th grade teacher
• Remedial math at HHES
• .5 literacy teacher at WMS
• One guidance counselor at WMS
• Remedial reading teacher at BHS
• ATP teacher CES/HHES
• ATP teacher at WMS
• Technology Resource Teacher
• Grade 5 teacher WMS
• Grade 6 teacher WMS
• 4 paraprofessionals regular ed
• 4 paraprofessionals special ed
• Lunch recess monitors at HHES and WMS
• Co curriculars at WMS and BHS
• Supplies, Materials and Textbooks

Fairfield County Council Meeting Monday January 25th

• SRBI- most districts reported rocky start to process
• RTTT ( Race to the Top – federal government initiative)  59 districts signed on- we were one of the 59 to sign on but we have a letter stating that we will not use merit pay  portion of commitment
• Insurance reports –Health Net giving some districts  headaches
• Tight district budgets  across the county for 2010-2011 school year
• Lively discussion on draft of 2011 CEA budget

State of CT Teacher of Year

• The 2010 state teacher of the year was Kristi Luetjen – a kindergarten teacher from West Hartford ( see 2010 December/January CEA Advisor for details)

WMS Teacher to be featured in CEA Advisor
Geoff Bergen , tech ed teacher at WMS will be featured in the CEA Advisor in the near future
Be sure to read about what Geoff has been up to!

REMEMBER CEA website is a great resource for all educational issues statewide be sure to visit cea.org