In this issue:
I hope you have enjoyed this sunny (if windy) Mother's Day!
Open Enrollment: NPS Health and Dental Insurance.
The Human Resources Office sent an email on May 2 informing members that the open enrollment period for health and dental insurance runs from May 2 until May 31. For more information, click here.
Open Enrollment: MTA's UNUM Disability Insurance
The NTA recommends that members carry the long term disability insurance offered through the MTA Benefits Division and UNUM Insurance. We do not recommend that you carry short term disability insurance, as our contractual sick leave benefits provide great coverage if you are disabled for a period less than a year. However, if you would like to extend your parental leave beyond the paid period of 40 days, short term disability can provide partial compensation to allow you to do that. You should speak with an UNUM representative to learn more about how this works.) Click here to sign up for an appointment to speak with a UNUM representative.
Parent / Educator Collaborative
The Parent / Educator Collaborative (PEC) will be holding a second listening session with City Council members on Thursday, May 12 at 7:30pm via Zoom. If you can, please attend: it's important they hear directly from educators to understand that the remaining cuts still impact students and the whole school community.
Why is it vital that we keep middle school intervention programs?
Why do we need additional mental health staff to address the rising social/emotional and behavioral crises among our students?
How do smaller class sizes benefit students?
What do we need to deliver excellent instruction?
Why must city leaders insist that we stop ALL the cuts and FULLY fund our schools?
Sign up for the Parent/Educator Collaborative mailing list to get the Zoom details for this meeting.
You can also email or call city council members to help them better understand the impact of budget cuts. Contact information for the councilors can be found here. Although you can send the entire council an email, it would be more effective to send your email to each councilor at their address. And include the mayor: Click here for her email address.
MTA New Member Summer Program
Are you a new educator interested in learning more about the union, but don't know where to begin? The New Member Program at MTA Summer Conference is for you! This program will run from July 31st to August 3rd at UMASS Amherst and is one track of the MTA Summer Conference. Through this program you will learn everything from union basics, reading and understanding your contract, as well as how to bargain a contract. This is a great opportunity to meet and network with other MTA members from across the state. This program is free to members in their the first five years. Please reach out to Ariana Foster (ntanewmember@gmail.com) with any questions. Registration will open at the end of May.