NTA EBulletin: January 19, 2026
- Mike Zilles
- 12 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Question of the Week (new)
The NTA is preparing for bargaining with the Newton School Committee. We will offer multiple opportunities for member input into our bargaining platform.
As a first visit into gathering this information, the question of the week is: "What is the most important issue that you believe the negotiations team should focus on"?
NTA Quality of Life and Working Conditions Survey
Please complete the Quality of Life and Working Conditions Survey It will close on Wednesday, January 21, at 10:00 p.m.
Please prioritize finishing all of the multiple choice questions first. Your open feedback responses are very valuable, and we get much more nuance from them than from the multiple choice questions. But you all have limited time, so please prioritize finishing the whole survey. Remember: You can, at any time before the survey closes, go back and add to or modify your responses, even if you have already completed the survey.
Negotiations (new)
Where we are now:
1. Our negotiations committee is up for elections this spring.
Election information, including nomination papers, will be delivered by email and posted in schools February 5 and 6.
Note: Along with nomination papers to be a member of the negotiations committee, nomination papers to be delegates to the MTA annual meeting and the NEA Representative Assembly will also be distributed.
Nomination papers are due in the NTA office on Friday February 27th, 2026.
If there are more candidates than slots, we will hold virtual elections on March 22nd and 23rd.
2. January, February: Develop and share negotiations priorities survey, and organize building based focus groups.
3. January, February: NTA reaches out to the School Committee to set our early negotiations meeting dates, with the hope that the Newton School Committee will join us in opening negotiations this spring. (Note: Contractually, neither party is obligated to begin negotiations until next fall.)
4. Present until first joint meeting with SC: Build our negotiations proposal. (Note: this is an ongoing and iterative process.)
A Note about Upcoming Negotiations
I have been reviewing documents from previous negotiations, and it seemed to me important to share some information I compiled in the past.
The Newton Public Schools are in a budget crisis. But take a look historically what they do when the crisis abates:
We were warned in 2010 and 2011 that without major concessions from unions across the city, including the NTA, layoffs would be severe. The NTA negotiated a contract that allowed the city and the district to recover from the financial crisis of 2008-2011.
What then happened in the subsequent four years? The city and schools recovered from the great recession, primarily due to our sacrifices, but also due to a successful override campaign that increased revenues dramatically.
In fact, between 2011 to 2014, the Newton Public Schools outlay for salary and benefits went up 20.8%. That's a lot, yet of that total, almost all of the increase went toward hiring more employees. Only a small fraction of the increase can be attributed to rising salaries and increasing benefits.
Then, when we came back to the bargaining table in 2014, we were told by district and city leaders that our sacrifices in 2011 were not temporary, but rather would be used to offset the "structural deficit." In fact, hiring 200 new employees creates a "structural deficit."
How does this relate to our current situation? We know the schools once again face a fiscal crisis due to chronic underfunding. We know that we and the community will be told that anything spent to improve our salaries and benefits--or to address those systemic needs that WE identify--will lead to layoffs and a curtailment of the pace of changes Anna Nolin is implementing.
Could layoffs happen if we bargain real cost of living adjustments to our salaries in these upcoming negotiations? Yes. That is a real risk.
Yet mark my words: When, not if, the NPS closes its budget gap during the period covered by our current and our next contract, do you think they will then renegotiate and increase our salaries and benefits? Not on your life. In fact, the more likely outcome is that the NPS will ramp up the number of initiatives, and ramp up the pressure to suppress our salaries and benefits relative to inflation.
We must bear that in mind when the schools and the city try to turn us against one another in these next contract negotiations.
Labor Relations
Field Trips Revisited (new)
It has happened. An elementary school teacher gave a child the wrong medication during a field trip. There were no ill effects for the child. The parents were grateful their child recovered (the medication the member gave the child resolved the medical issue.)
The teacher received a letter of reprimand that went into their personnel file.
There were a number of events outside the member's control that contributed to the mistake, including errors of judgement by other individuals in the member's building.
We will of course, grieve the district's decision, and we will, of course, work to negotiate relief and protection for any educator who chaperones a field trip.
All that said, I am deeply troubled by how unfair this decision was. Classroom teachers, especially elementary classroom teachers, have little choice but to chaperone many field trips, and, by state mandate, one chaperone must be responsible for student medications.
I thought the liability in chaperoning a field trip came primarily from the potential to harm to a child, secondarily from parent litigation.
Now, it seems, the district's willingness to discipline educators is itself our members' greatest liability.
Recording absences in ESS
Building administrators, including principals, assistant principals, department heads, and others, have been told that they must reject sick day requests unless employees use the drop down menu to list the reason for the absence. This puts these school leaders in an awkward position, where they have to be the enforcer who rejects your contractual paid absences.
That said, the information that HR is asking for is necessary. Being absent for a personal illness is different, contractually, from being absent to care for a family member. Here is how you record the "reason" for you absence when you or someone in your family is ill. Ignore the (optional) choice...it is not optional. Stating that is is seems to be a platform limitation.
Rebooting NTA Committees - Get Involved!
The BIPOC Committee will have its first meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 4pm at the NTA Office (46 Austin St).
The Health & Safety Committee will have its first meeting on Thursday, Jan. 22 at 3:15pm at the NTA Office (46 Austin St).
If you're interested in getting involved in the important work of either of these committees, you're invited! No RSVP needed, just show up.
Email Ryan Normandin (ntaofficer@newteach.org) with any questions.
MTA Officer Candidate Forum: Hold the Date
What: Candidate Forum for MTA Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates
When: Wednesday, February 4, at 4:15 PM
Where: Bigelow Middle School (tentative)
This year at MTA annual meeting, delegates will vote for a new president and vice president of the MTA to two year terms.
This will be a very consequential vote for the determining the future direction of the MTA.
I urge members to attend the forum and to consider running to be a delegate to the MTA Annual Meeting, which will be held this year in Boston, at the Hynes Center, on Friday May 8 and Saturday, May 9. The Newton Teachers Association can send approximately 42 members to the meeting. It is important that we fill all of our seats. This is our opportunity as a local to weigh in on the current direction, priorities and policy decisions of the MTA.
There are three candidates running for President, and three running for Vice President, and they are running on slates:
Educators for a Democratic Union (EDU), a caucus within the MTA, has endorsed candidate Matt Bach, President of the Andover Educators Association and MTA Board member representing District 22F, for MTA President and Deb Gesualdo, President of the Malden Educators Association for MTA Vice President.
Deb McCarthy, the current MTA Vice President, is running for President on a slate with Dean Robinson, a professor at UMass Amherst, who is running for MTA Vice President.
John Sullivan, President of the Belmont Educators Association and current Executive Committee member for Region G (our region) is running for MTA President on a slate with Gayle Carvalho, President of the Quincy Educators Association and MTA Executive Committee member.
In addition, there will be elections to replace John Sullivan as Region G Executive Committee Member, and for the position of Director to the Board representing Region G, District 18. Jamie Rinaldi is the incumbent, and is running for another two year term; Gillian Van Delft, a Memorial-Spaulding Building Representative, and Alison Lobron are also candidates.
We invite you to submit questions for the candidates vying to represent you as MTA President and Vice President -- don't hold back!
MTA Winter Skills Conference
We hope you'll be joining us at the 2026 MTA Winter Union Skills Conference! This year’s Winter Union Skills Conference will take place on Saturday, January 24, 2026, at the Sheraton Boston Hotel with the All Presidents' Meeting the Friday night before. These free events have something for all MTA members, activists, and leaders—whether you’re someone who’s just learning about your union or an experienced local president. Click here to learn more and register today!
This Conference is a great opportunity to come together with members across the state to learn about negotiations & contract campaigns, union legal rights & advocacy, solidarity school & political education, membership, and organizing through workshops offering best practices and strategies that build power. Locals and chapters are strongly encouraged to attend as a group with different members participating in workshops tailored to their specific local roles and interests. View the 2026 Winter Union Skills Workshop List.
Note: When registering, the website may tell you that registration is closed - ignore that! You are still able to sign up.
In solidarity,
Mike Zilles, President
NewtonTeachers Association
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