NTA EBulletin: November 9, 2025

Setti Warren: In Memoriam

When I learned that Setti Warren had died last week, I was in shock--numb, in disbelief--yet also spent the week holding terrible grief at bay. 

Setti was a superb and extraordinary man. He was a friend to me personally, a friend of education and educators here in Newton, and a model of authentic leadership. 

Setti became mayor of Newton in January of 2010; I became president of the Newton Teachers and David Fleishman became superintendent of schools in July. We appeared, together, for the first time, during the September convocation at Newton South High School. I think that is where I met Setti. 

We came into office at a terrible time for our nation and for the City of Newton— the aftermath of the Great Recession. The city’s finances were in terrible shape, with stagnant revenue growth, health insurance costs shooting up, little state or federal support, and the NTA was entering its second year without a contract, as were other city unions.

We were in difficult negotiations with the school committee, and we were, frankly, stuck. This may sound outrageous in today's polarized political climate--it may indeed sound like a "backroom deal"--but leaders of both negotiations teams agreed to meet in a subcommittee of the whole to see if we could move things forward. We met in the mayor’s office: me, Jane Roderick, and Joel Greifinger representing the NTA; Setti Warren, Maureen Lemieux, Matt Hills, Jonathan Yeo, Claire Sokoloff, Sandy Guryan and Sean Mannion representing the city and schools. No lawyers.

Together, we negotiated a contract that altered our health insurance modestly (but avoided the GIC), provided modest but reasonable COLAs, introduced a MA+60 lane, and provided "good cause" protections for Unit C members. The schools, the city, and the NTA all sacrificed and all benefited from the contract we negotiated. In Setti's office, we shared a palpable sense that we were facing this fiscal crisis together, and that we were looking out for each other’s interests as much as our own. We trusted each other. 

As much as I would like to take credit for this, credit goes primarily to Setti. He lightened the atmosphere, lifting us all with his contagious good humor. With his leadership, we modeled what negotiations could be. I don’t need to attach a label to how we bargained—interest based bargaining or positional bargaining--it was honest, authentic, and trusting bargaining. It felt great to be sitting at the table with people without pretense of posturing. It was fun and exciting. And we all came out winners—the City of Newton, the Newton Public Schools, the members of the NTA, and the students. When we reached that deal, our handshakes across the table expressed warm congratulations and gratitude. 

Setti was also there for the NTA when our relationship with school administrators became strained. I share a couple examples. 

1. When the staff of Angier moved to a swing space for the construction of their new facility, they were given flimsy and clumsily sized boxes and two tape machines to pack. It was agonizing for the staff—at an NTA emergency building meeting, I asked members to raise their hands if they had been injured while packing: a third to half of the people in the room raised their hands. But eventually, we were able to convince the district to purchase plastic crates with dollies.

Then, when the crates arrived at Angier, we were shocked. They were used, filthy, with motor oil in many of them, and they stank. No dollies. (Some detective work later revealed that they had been used in their past life to ship auto parts.)

Jane Roderick, Jason Leto and I could not believe it when staff showed us these crates. We gathered three of the crates, headed over to city hall, and, unannounced, we stormed a meeting Setti and Maureen Limieux were holding in Setti’s office. They did not "run out the back door": Setti and Maureen stopped their meeting, met with us, and made it very clear that they were aghast and that they would help us get this resolved. Soon after, Angier had new crates and dollies. These have been used in every subsequent building move in the Newton Public Schools. This ordinary, common sense tool—crates and dollies-- is a part of Setti’s legacy to us. 

2. Setti was there for us during a crisis point at Day Middle School. There had been two terrible incidents of anti-semitic graffiti, but what perhaps made them most terrible was not only the incidents themselves, but also that every student in the school was aware of them. Yet staff were told by their then principal that they could not talk about them with students of families. The staff was incensed, I was incensed, and I wrote about it. 

Setti read what I wrote, and called me on a Saturday afternoon. He was always discreet, and we began talking about the incident carefully, until Setti felt safe to reveal to me how disappointed and angry he was at the district’s response. Our indignation united us and sealed our friendship. And there was a new principal leading Day Middle School the following year.

One thing Setti did not do was use the purse strings to control the schools. He did not give money conditionally, as our current mayor does so artlessly. Setti did, of course, pay close attention to what was happening in the schools and he shared his opinions, sometimes publicly. But he did not withhold or allocate funds so as to force the schools to comply with his wishes.

My grief for Setti is not just for a friend and confidant, but for an exemplar of civil discourse, of genuine leadership, of how the work of a politician can be, genuinely, public service. 

You served us well, Setti, and we grieve your loss.

Newton Elections

Of course, I am disappointed that Jenna Miara, Mali Brodt, and Jim Murphy did not win seats on the school committee, and I think whatever else I say about the elections would be false if I were not clear about that up. I think all three of these candidates would have made fantastic additions to the school committee. Jenna, Mali, and Jim understand well the educational needs of our students, and would have centered student needs as members of the school committee. 

That said, the citizens of Newton thought differently, and I honor that. I welcome Victor Lee, Ben Schlesinger, Jonathan Green, Linda Swain, Arrianna Proia, and Jason Bhardwaj to the committee, and welcome back Tamika Olszweski and Alicia Piedalue. I look forward to us surprising each other get past the idea that there were “sides” in this election, and collaborate well to serve Newton’s students as best we can. We are all on the same side, that of Newton’s students.

Finally, I welcome the final member of the school committee, Mayor elect Marc Laredo. I look forward to working with you as you settle into your new role. It will be a pleasure.

Block Spam Emails to your Newton Public Schools

Email Account

After the “Kid’sFirst" email that was sent to all NPS educators, Ryan and I reached out to Steve Rattendi to see if this type of political spam email could be blocked. Steven sent us a very informative response about what NTA members (any NPS employees, for that matter) can do themselves to block the emails.

From Steve:

We rarely specifically block emails coming into the district and instead rely on Google's algorithms - there is way too much SPAM that comes via email for us to spend time individually blocking them all. 

Folks should use the"Mark as Spam" button available within Gmail. If enough folks do so, Google's algorithms should, in theory, begin to recognize and send the mail to SPAM. 

Since this also looks like it is coming from Constant Contact, they can and should also use the"unsubscribe"at the bottom of the email to get off of this mailing list. Constant contact will honor that unsubscribe in compliance with Fed Laws/Regulations even if the maintainer of the email list tries to manually put the person back on the list.

Retirement Plus Update

Since the Retirement Plus bill failed to pass in the state senate last spring, the process has begun again. It passed in the House last year, and will most likely pass there again. So, once again we must advocate with our state senators to pass this bill. Please click here to send a letter! This legislation is impactful for thousands of Massachusetts educators approaching retirement.

There is also an ongoing social media campaign to support the legislation.

From MTA newsletter:

Take Action This Week in Support of RetirementPlus Legislation

When: Through Friday, Nov. 13

Where: Facebook and Instagram

Join educators this week in a targeted social media campaign to influence state senators to take action on RetirementPlus legislation, which will give educators another opportunity to join the program. The goal is to do this before the Legislature breaks on Nov. 19. Please post your targeted RetirementPlus picture and message on Facebook or another social media page. Shout out to the Wellesley Educators Association, the Burlington Educators Association, and so many other locals that are posting about this key issue. Be sure to tag your specific legislator and use the hashtag #RetirementPlus. Follow the hashtag and like and reshare other posts. 

Community Defense and Rapid Response for Educators:

LUCE Training

This training will prepare educators to coordinate with the LUCE hotline to protect and support immigrant students and families. Participants will learn basic tools to identify potential immigration enforcement activity and review documented scenarios involving students and schools. We will also review examples of educator-led rapid response efforts and how to get started. After the training, attendees will be connected with LUCE contacts in their school districts and communities to strengthen local rapid response systems.

Fri, Nov 14 (5-7:30pm) North East Regional Training

35 Village Road, Suite 602, Middleton, MA

Know Your Rights & Reentry in Uncertain Times: Navigating the Classroom & U.S. Immigration for Returning Faculty

Thu, Nov 13 (4-5pm, Zoom)

To register for the workshops, fill out this form: https://forms.office.com/r/jdc0hzxqGS

Trainings to Administer Medications on Field Trips

State law now requires at least one chaperone on a field trip to have received training on dispensing medications to students. 

I am hearing from educators who object to all staff in some schools being required to participate in the trainings, which must happen at least once per year.

There are a number of things I would like to point out.

1. Teachers are not required to chaperone field trips. The new regulation only applies to you if you volunteer to chaperone a field trip. I will follow up about this with Anna, but I am hopeful we are on the same page. I believe that if you are very clear that you do not intend to chaperone a field trip this school year, you should not have to participate in this training. 

2. It may be too late for that—many of you, I know, have already done the training. However, with regard to #1 above, I repeat, you are not required to chaperone field trips. If you are directed to do so, please contact me at this email address. 

I know that field trips offer opportunities for exploration and learning beyond the classroom, and they offer students an engaging activity that allows for them to get to know their teachers and their classmates in a very different setting. 

That said, as your union representative, I do need to inform you that chaperoning a field trip does expose you to repercussions if something goes wrong. At the very least, the district is required to investigate any reported incidents on a field trip. Being subjected to the investigation itself can be the source of extreme stress and anxiety. This is true even when the investigation proves that the educator had acted professionally and appropriately. 

I know Anna and I share similar reservation about exposure, both of the district and of educators. So I say it once more: field trips are voluntary.

Mahmoud Decision

Early last summer, the Supreme Court issued a ruling, Mahmoud, that gives parents an expansive right to have their students receive alternative instruction when curricula offends their sincerely held beliefs.

This week, Ryan and/or I will be participants in a workshop with lawyers from the MTA Legal Division to learn more about the implications of this decision for educators, so I will more details later.

For now, let me make clear that Mahmoud does not require teachers, departments, or the district to censor materials that some parents find offensive based on their sincerely held beliefs. Of course the Mahmoud could have a chilling effect, and many educators will choose to self-censure to avoid controversy. But to be clear: The Mahmoud decision does require curriculum to be censored. It requires that students be afforded the opportunity to opt out of lessons and to learn from different materials. 

In solidarity,

Mike Zilles, President

Newton Teachers Association