BTA Welcome Back Event at Captain Lawrence
It was great to see so many faces at the BTA Welcome Back Event at Captain Lawrence on Thursday, 9/25.
Drawing prize winners included:
Dori Kiplock
Jane Shields
Deborah Paul
Howard Hamilton
Veronica Valencia
Meghan McCann
Michelle Hamilton
Congratulations!
NYSTRS resources and PREP seminars
It’s never too early to start planning for your retirement. This article from NYSTRS provides five steps you should take if you are five years or less away from retirement. NYSTRS is also offering Prep seminars to offer tips for retirement planning and to help you better understand your NYSTRS benefits. The upcoming dates in our area are November 20th and December 4th from 8:30-1pm in Mount Kisco. Registration is required and spots fill up quickly.
NYSUT day out at the Yankees
Some BTA members took advantage of discounted Yankees tickets offered by NYSUT for their September 7th game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Big win for the Yankees! Pictured above from left to right are Julie Crosier, Rosalie Consani, Liz Lopez, Maria Paternoster, Kevin McAllister, Melinda Person (President of NYSUT) and Mairead Schuelein.
Cambridge Credit Counseling – free NYSUT member benefit
Did you know? NYSUT offers free consultations with Cambridge Credit Counseling for members who would like more information on managing credit card debt, debt resolution and student loan consolidation. To speak with a Cambridge Certified Counselor, call 1-888-254-0398 or fill out this form.
Certified Staff contract
Many of you have asked when you will be receiving the new version of the Certified Staff contract. Steve Tibbetts provided the negotiations team a redline version of the new contract approximately 2 weeks ago and the negotiations team just met to review it. Mairead will meet with Steve and Jim next week to discuss and then a final draft will be created and reviewed. The contract will then go to print. The hope is to have a final copies distributed to members later this fall.
BTA Executive Board Stipends/Changes to Dues
In an effort to balance the BTA’s budget and minimize the amount we take from savings to make ends meet, the Executive Board has had to look more closely at stipends and dues. Other local unions were surveyed on their local dues amounts and stipends by title during this process. At the June Executive Board meeting, the Executive Board approved a change to lower their stipends beginning July 1, 2025. Further decreases in stipends to some titles will occur the July 1 following that title’s next election. At the last change to the stipend structure in May 2008, the General Membership voted on those changes and so that will be done now as well. The Rep Council will vote on these changes in the fall and members will vote at the next General Membership meeting in November. There are no changes to stipends for the Reps or the Webmaster. If the vote passes, the stipends will become a part of the BTA By-Laws. You can see the proposed stipend structure here.
Additionally, the Executive Board voted that the local dues (dues paid directly to the BTA, not to NYSUT or AFT) for Certified Staff members will increase each paycheck by the dollar amount of the percent raise that is negotiated for Certified Staff for each year of the contract. For Aides and ALC members, the dues will increase each paycheck by 50% of the dollar amount of the percent raise that is negotiated for Certified Staff for each year. For example, Certified Staff will be getting a 2% raise this year. As a result, dues will increase by $2 each paycheck for Certified Staff and $1 each paycheck for Aides and ALC members. Dues increases are not in the BTA Constitution and By-Laws and therefore do not need to be voted on by the membership. The last time there was an increase in local dues was in 2021.
As you might recall, the Certified Staff contract MOA provides for dues to be spread over each paycheck rather than just being collected November through April. MOAs are being approved at next week’s BOE meeting for the Aides and ALC units to allow dues to be collected over the 10 month period as well.
LAP Program Updates
As one of our Local Action Project (LAP) initiatives, the BTA will be tracking member’s attendance at social events, meetings, etc. The more times you attend, the more chances you have at winning in drawings that will be held at the mid and end of the school year. Our LAP budget was just recently approved by NYSUT. The BTA will be receiving $14,000 to put towards the LAP team’s initiatives for the upcoming school year. LAP initiatives include brand expansion of our logo, new t-shirts for members, training members to have 1:1 conversations with all of our members, and trainings for Reps and Exec Board members monthly throughout this year. We are fortunate to have been selected as a LAP team and look forward to what this money can do for us!
Questionnaire for Members
Last chance! As part one of LAP’s initiatives, we ask you to take this Know Your Rights survey. It should only take a few minutes of your time. The results of this survey will then be used in future bulletins to educate members on their rights, the laws, and situations to avoid.
NYSUT Member Benefits
Welcome New Members!
Tara Taryn, Irvington
Angela Fazzino, RLC
Curtis Haywood, RLC
Kayla Tucek, Transfiguration
Dinorah Fils-Aime, RLC
Arai Nunez Alvarez – CTE
Save the Date
The BTA is again collaborating with Boces for the Making Strides Breast Cancer Walk at Manhattanville College on Sunday, October 19th. Please consider joining our team and/or making a donation to this worthy cause. You can find our team page here
Will Day – we will have a virtual Will Day on Thursday, November 6th after school. Aides – you are also eligible to participate in Will Day as a free benefit from navitaliya to schedule your appointment.
The BTA and SWBOCES will again be hosting a legislative breakfast on Thursday, October 30th at 8:30am at CTE. Thank you to all the CTE members for their work leading up to this day. NYSUT President, Melinda Person, will be in attendance and speaking at the event.
NYSUT will be holding a state-wide Fix Tier 6 rally in Albany on Sunday, March 8th.
More info on busing to come!
Reminders
Panorama Survey: On October 20th, you will receive an email on your SWBOCES email account from either “support+ [clienturl]@panoramaed.com” or a “Panorama email address”. Enclosed will be a survey that is our opportunity to give SWBOCES feedback on topics such as professional development, school building and center leadership, belonging and well-being. Your supervisor should provide your site with a dedicated time during the workday to complete it. The survey will be open from October 20th through October 31st and takes about 20 minutes to complete. Please fill it out and give honest feedback! Next Rep Council meeting: The next Rep Council meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 29th at 4pm, location TBD. Zoom link to follow. BTA text list: If you wish to receive texts from the BTA, please fill out this form. The BTA does not give out your cell phone number to outside parties. We use it to send reminders about meetings and upcoming events.
If you receive an email from your supervisor saying you can bring a union rep to a scheduled meeting, reach out to one of the Reps or Exec Board members listed at the bottom of this bulletin ASAP.
Executive Board and Reps
Mairead Schuelein, President
Jason Poniatowski, Executive Vice President
Stacey DiPaola, Treasurer
Derrick Green, 1st Vice President of Aides
Keith Mattos, 2nd Vice President of ALC
Mike Piccolo, Grievance Chair
Rosalie Consani, Corresponding Secretary
Liz Lopez, Recording Secretary
Julie Crosier, Teacher Rep
Jane Shields, Teacher Rep
Pierre Fils, CTE Rep
Read more: Reminder: October 3, 2025 bulletin, Welcome Back Event, Member Benefits, Save the Date, LAP update
BOCES Teachers Association 