BTA Holiday Food Drive
Thank you to all who donated to the BTA Holiday Food Drive. In total, the BTA collected $200 and 1,190 pounds of food to Feeding Westchester. The food was delivered to Feeding Westchester on Friday, December 19th with the help of ALC Vice President Keith Mattos. That money and food helped to provide hundreds of meals to families throughout Westchester during the holiday season.
January 15th Deadline for BOCES Bucks
A reminder to all Certified Staff that under the new contract, Certified Staff must submit their letter of retirement to HR by January 15th if they would like to retire between the last workday in June and August 31st and would like to use their sick time as Boces Bucks. The form for retirement to submit to HR can be found here.
Certified Staff contract update/MOAs
The Board of Education President and Dr. Coles signed the Certified Staff contract at the December 18th BOE meeting and the new contract has been printed. It is anticipated that contracts will be distributed to all Certified Staff early next week at each site. They are green in color and labeled with your name. We strongly encourage you to read your contract!
An MOA subcommittee has been created to negotiate an MOA that will address Back to School night, TA certification stipends and prep/lunch time for programs that are housed in district settings. Thank you to Stacey DiPaola, Tyree Morris and Jane Shields for agreeing to be a part of that subcommittee. The first committee meeting with administration took place early in January. Proposals were exchanged and we meet again next week.
NYSUT United January/February edition
The BTA is featured twice in the January/February edition of NYSUT United, a magazine that gets delivered via mail from NYSUT to your home on a bi-monthly basis. A picture of our members recognizing SRPS is in the SRP Day article, as well as a separate article about the NYSUT visit to our legislative event in late October, which features a quote from our President, Mairead Schuelein. More to come next month when the digital version is out!
Know Your Rights
Thank you to all of you who completed the Know Your Rights survey that was sent throughout August and September. Each month I will highlight a different question that was on the survey, how our members responded and the State Education law that explains the answer to the survey.
Question #3: Under New York State Education Law and Commissioner’s Regulations, if a teacher is dismissed, the Board must provide reasons. 79.5% of members answered it was true. The correct answer is false.
As per NYS Ed Law 3031, the Board of Education does not need to provide a reason or reasons. The teacher may request in writing, no later than 21 days after the recommendation to be dismissed, the reasons for the dismissal, which must be provided within 7 days of the request.
NYSUT Member Benefits
Fix Tier 6 Rally on March 8th, 2026
Welcome New Members!
Moises Robles, CTE
Andreas Kiss, CTE
Congratulations Retirees
Samonie Cameron, 26 years
Billie Dolan, 22 years
Save the Date
The dates for ESY will be 7/6/26 – 8/14/26. Posting will be up from January 12th through January 23rd. Check your SWBOCES email in the next few days for the posting from HR.
Changes are coming to the BTA website! More information to come in the next few weeks.
NYSUT Tarrytown Office is holding free virtual and online seminars for Spring 2026 in conjunction with the ELT. These are free CTLE hours for NYSUT members. You must first register through ELT here. Then use this link to register for the seminars.
Reminders
Next Rep Council meeting: The next Rep Council meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 21st at 4pm via Zoom. 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.
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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
Theresa Saive, Teacher Rep
Pierre Fils, CTE Rep
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BOCES Teachers Association 