NTA eBulletin: May 10, 2026
- Mike Zilles
- 4 hours ago
- 10 min read
Dear Colleagues,
Thank you to all of you who answered the question of the week last week. Participation more than doubled from 160 votes cast on April 12 to 412 votes cast on May 3!
A couple other markers of member engagement with the eBulletin: last week, 146 people clicked on the link to the elementary schedule presentation.
Please keep the engagement high as we close out the year over the next few weeks!
Question of the Week
Last week's question: Have you participated in a negotiations focus group yet?
For this week, Superintendent Nolin and the School Committee have asked the NTA to survey our members on whether the Newton Public Schools should allow residents from outside Newton to attend the Newton Public Schools through school choice.
Each year, the Newton School Committee must decide whether to participate in an inter-district school choice program. The program allows participating districts to enroll non-resident students, selected by lottery. The School Committee annually decides whether to open seats by grade and building, considering factors such as enrollment capacity, staffing, and potential tuition revenue to the district. Admitted students have the right to remain “in district” for the full duration of their schooling.
Historically, Newton and surrounding communities have opted out. This year, Superintendent Nolin is recommending that the school committee vote to opt in and open ~80 seats, mostly at the elementary level, to the program.
Below are some arguments for and against Newton participating in school choice:
Pro:
Each student's home district pays Newton $5k per participating student, and Newton is additionally reimbursed for special education services the student requires.
Currently, our contract allows non-resident employees to send their children to NPS if there are available seats. Should your employment with NPS end, your child would not be able to continue attending NPS.
Each year that Newton opts into the school choice program, non-resident NPS employees would be able to enter the lottery to permit their child to attend NPS through a school choice seat. Should their child be selected, that child would have the right to continue attending NPS even if the employee's employment with NPS ends. Should their child not be selected through the lottery, that child would still have a right to attend NPS through the aforementioned contract provision, which only applies so long as the member is employed by NPS.
Newton resident students would be enriched by the addition to the school community of students from other districts.
Students from other districts would have access to a Newton education.
Con:
Because school choice would populate currently empty seats, the size of some classes would increase.
The money from school choice is not free - it will be taken from the sending districts, many of which are likely to need those resources as much as, or more so, than Newton. Should surrounding wealthy suburbs follow Newton's lead, this program could lead to a drain of resources from poorer districts to wealthy ones, further exacerbating inequalities.
Research from the University of Chicago suggests that students most likely to benefit from opt-in school choice systems like the one Newton is considering, such as low-income and ELL students, are the least likely to apply. Instead, more highly resourced families apply, draining resources from the home district while providing negligible, if any, benefit to the participating student.
Should surrounding districts follow suit - particularly if they lose students to Newton - the financial benefits of school choice may be decreased as Newton must pay to send its own students who are leveraging school choice to go elsewhere.
These 80 students would have a right to attend NPS for the duration of their education. While currently, these 80 seats are available and the district is expected to net revenue, it can be hard to predict the school population in ten years. Fluctuations down the road could result in these students causing the district to incur additional costs if classrooms or staffing must be added.
This week's question: Do you believe that Newton should participate in the school choice program?
Elementary Schedule Change for 2026-2027 School Year (revised)
As you know, the district has proposed changes to the 2026-2027 elementary schedule. The NTA will negotiate with the SC regarding the proposed changes the week of May 11, and the schedule will be finalized after negotiations conclude. Once we reach an agreement, it will be shared with elementary educators for ratification.
We need your feedback on these proposed changes!
Please complete this survey as soon as you can!
Know Your Contract: Workers' Compensation Insurance
As you are probably aware, the City of Newton and the Newton Public Schools do not provide workers' compensation insurance for members of Units A - E. However, the NTA has won contract language that protects members in the event of an injury on the job.
These are your contractual protections:
If you are injured on the job, any days you must be absent due to the injury are covered through sick leave bank days, not personal sick leave days, for a period up to two and one half years. Any out-of-pocket medical expenses you incur are reimbursed by the NPS.
Your contractual benefits actually have advantages over workers' compensation insurance.
If you miss days due to your injury, workers' compensation insurance pays 60% of your salary; our contractual benefit pays 100%.
If you miss more than one month due to on-the-job injury, the time you are absent and receiving workers' compensation benefits does not count as creditable service towards your retirement. Time you are out under our contractual benefit do.
There are disadvantages too. The largest?
Members who work during the school year and then work in ESY are not covered during their employment in the summer.
This is a problem we have been trying to solve in "Labor Relations" meetings all year. To date, we have not reached a resolution.It appears now that the path to a fair resolution will be to negotiate this issue with the school committee when we begin negotiating a new contract. (FYI, members have raised concerns about this issue in a number of bargaining focus groups.)
To access your benefits, follow these steps:
1. File an incident report as soon after the accident as possible.
2. Download this letter and bring it with you when you visit your medical provider.
Your provider will assume that if you are injured on the job, your medical bills will be paid through workers' compensation insurance, making you ineligible to use your own health insurance. You submit this letter so that your medical provider will bill your personal health insurance.
3. If your injury causes you to miss work, follow up with an email to HRSupport@newton.k12.ma.us letting them know your were injured on the job, and asking them to use days from the sick leave bank to cover any days you are out of work
4. Save all receipts for any out-of-pocket medical expenses you incur due to your injury. Submit these to HRSupport@newton.k12.ma.us when your treatment has ended.
If you treatment extends beyond three months, at three months you may submit any medical bills you have for a partial reimbursement.
ESY Workers' Compensation Protections (revised)
Correction: Last week, when I posted this originally, I said the policy would also cover some of the injured employee's out of pocket medical expenses. This is not correct. The policy does not cover out-of-pocket medical expenses.
FYI, district administration shared with the NTA a proposed policy to protect members who are injured on the job if working in the ESY program.
The policy proposal would provide pay for anyone injured on the job for any time they lost while working at ESY. This would apply to employees are covered by the Unit C Collective Bargaining Agreement during the school year and those who only work for NPS for the ESY program.
While this is certainly a step forward, the policy is inadequate for the following reasons:
For one it is a policy, not part of the Unit C Collective Bargaining Unit, and, as such, is essentially unenforceable. The district reserves for itself the sole authority to administer the policy.
It does not cover those circumstances where a NPS school year employee has ongoing needs when the next school year opens in September: no coverage of further out-of-pocket medical expenses, no automatic access to the sick leave bank should the member need to remain out on leave.
The NTA believes that if you work in Newton during the school year and then work in ESY during the summer, you should have the same rights and benefits during the summer that you have during the school year. This is a bargaining goal.
That said, the need for the contractual protections of the contract in case of a summer injury on the job is necessary and should be honored for this coming summer and retroactively for last summer.
Sick Leave Bank Access Arbitration Ruling
On April 17, the NTA suffered a setback in an arbitration decision.
Short version: The arbitrator ruled that the Sick Leave Bank Committee can consider prior use of personal sick days and sick leave bank days when deciding whether to grant days from the sick leave bank. Nor is how the committee weighs past usage tethered to past practice, but is left to the discernment of the committee. And should the two members of the Sick Leave Bank Committee from the administration vote no, and the two members from the NTA vote yes, the application is denied.
Details: In the fall of 2024, The Sick Leave Bank Committee, comprising, at the time, Joany Santa and Liam Hurley for the administration and Mike Zilles and Chris Walsh for the NTA, denied a member access to the sick leave bank. In a 2-2 vote, with the two NTA members voting yes, and the two administrative members voting no, Joany Santa claimed that access to the sick leave bank was denied.
Our contract states that the decision by the Sick Leave Bank Committee cannot be appealed. However, the NTA grieved the the fact that administrative members of the committee did not follow the correct criteria when making their decisions.
The arbitrator ruled that the administrative members of the Sick Leave Bank Committee did introduce criteria not permissible under the contract (cost of a substitute, budgetary constraints of the district) and required that the Sick Leave Bank Committee meet again to reconsider its decision. But that is where the good news ends.
The arbitrator also ruled that members of the Sick Leave Bank Committee "may consider the employee’s prior use of all forms of sick leave available under the agreement, including prior grants from the sick leave bank itself."
The arbitrator also ruled that, in the absence of a majority, the application for sick leave days should be considered denied.
In other words, the arbitrator ruled that, if the administrative members of the Sick Leave Bank decide that a person's prior use of sick leave days is excessive, they can deny access to the sick leave bank unilaterally.
Each of us contributes one of our own sick leave bank days in each September to support members stricken by serious illness. At the end of every year, any days remaining in the sick leave bank are returned to the district. To my knowledge, we have never used up all the days in the sick leave bank; some days have been returned to the district every year.
The days in the sick leave bank are our days. However, this arbitrator denied the NTA of a full voice in determining how they are used, which could essentially change how the Sick Leave Bank Committee has operated since it was created in 1970.
UNUM Disability Insurance Open Enrollment Period (revised)
Open Enrollment dates: March 24, 2026 – May 22, 2026
In light of the sick leave bank decision summarized above, I have a heightened sense of urgency that members sign up for long-term disability insurance. In fact, the member who was the subject of the arbitration discussed above reached out to me and asked me to urge members to sign up for long term disability insurance. Without the insurance, the member told me, she would be destitute.
So during this open enrollment period, I urge you to consider long-term disability insurance through UNUM, a group policy offered by MTA Benefits.
To learn more, click here.
To speak with an UNUM representative, click here.
To enroll on line, click here.
GLP-1 Medications (new)
The NTA has filed an unfair labor charge against the City of Newton and the Newton Public Schools for unilaterally dropping GLP-1 coverage for weight loss from our Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance plans.
The charge reads:
On or about February 23, 2026, the City of Newton announced in an email to all Newton Teacher Association (NTA) members who participate in the Blue Cross Blue Shield healthcare plans that, after August 1, 2026, the City would no longer cover GLP-1 medication for patients without diabetes in any of its health insurance plans. GLP-1 medications for weight loss had previously been covered under the health insurance plan as Tier 3 medications with a $55 co-pay. When the City announced this significant change to the existing health insurance policy, impacting the terms and conditions of NTA members and presented it as a fait accompli, it failed to give advance notice of a change to a mandatory subject of bargaining and ignored its duty to bargain on a proposed change in violation of Section 10(a)(5)of the law and, derivatively, Section 10(a)(1).
Negotiations Focus Groups
Our next cycle of contract negotiations is rapidly approaching!
Before the NTA’s negotiations team sits down with the school committee’s, we need to understand better the priorities of our members - what are we looking for in a fair compensation package? What do we want to see changed about our working conditions? Where can our leave policies be improved? Once we have the answers to these questions, we can craft a bargaining platform that will be the team’s north star as they navigate negotiations.
And that’s where you come in!
Over the next few weeks each building’s NTA building representatives and contract action team captains will be holding members-only focus groups to gather input.
Please make every effort to attend. While there will be a forthcoming bargaining survey, and our team will always seek member input, these focus groups are pivotal in creating our platform. They’re some of the best opportunities you’ll have to ensure that your voice is heard and incorporated into the foundation of our negotiations.
NTA Office Relocation
The Newton Teachers Association Office has moved. We are now located at 29 Crafts Street, Suite 470. Our new office is handicapped accessible. We invite you to stop in and see our -- your -- relocated NTA office.
Sharing the eBulletin with the Larger Community
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Please share this link with members of the community whom you think would appreciate receiving the eBulletin.
In solidarity,
Mike Zilles, President
Newton Teachers Association
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