BTA Happy Hour
Nearly 70 members attended the BTA End of the Year Happy Hour held on Wednesday, June 3rd. Thank you to Rosalie Consani, Liz Lopez and Stacey DiPaola for their work in planning and executing the event.
Congratulations to Phyllis Marto, Christine Menta and Donna Harris West for winning the raffles. The BTA donated $350 to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
Wear Your Shirt Wednesdays!
Wear Your Shirt Wednesdays have been a success! Continue to wear your shirts every Wednesday and make sure spotters at your site log you. Congratulations to our May winners:
Lilia Corona, Rochambeau
Leah Harris, Transfiguration
Eric Ford, Transfiguration
Jennifer Scelia, Irvington
Magdalena Andujar, Transfiguration
A drawing will be held again at the end of June, so the more times you wear your shirt, the more chances to win. Photos can be uploaded here. You can find more pictures of our members wearing there shirts here on our Facebook page.
ALC Contract MOA ratification
The ALC contract MOA was ratified on June 4th with a vote of 1-0. The MOA is scheduled to be approved by the Board of Education at their June 24th meeting. Thank you to Mairead Schuelein, Keith Mattos and Mike Piccolo for their work in that negotiation.
Changes to Tier 6
NYSUT’s lobbying to Fix Tier 6 has finally brought some changes. Hochul signed legislation as part of the state budget for reform to changes for our Tier 6 members. For members in our Teachers Retirement System (teachers, TAs, clinicians, counselors, speech therapists), this means you can receive a full pension after 30 years and retire at age 58.
For members in our Employees Retirement System (Aides, PTs, OTs), there are changes to the contribution rate for each year based on your salary. Find out more about the changes here as well as NYSUT’s other legislative wins here.
LAP 1:1 Conversations
Thank you to our 20+ volunteers for beginning our 1:1 conversation campaign. Over 215 conversations have already been had. Each conversation should last less than 10 minutes and is used to better get to know our members.
Personal Day Usage
As we enter the month of June, many events arise in our personal lives that require us to use personal days. Several members are requesting more personal days than allotted, even when they have existing sick time, and are now receiving counseling memos for going into payroll deduction. Before you put in for a personal day, make sure to check your Wincap account to see how many personal days and sick days you have left. Since it can take up to a week for a recent personal or sick day to reflect on Wincap, please keep that in mind when checking your balances.
How to take a personal day: With the exception of the one emergency personal day (which requires an email to your supervisor and Suzanne Doherty), we must all complete this form, Under “reason” – please put “personal”. The contract language states:
Certified Staff: You must provide the form to your supervisor at least 2 days in advance of the personal day you plan to take.
Aides: You must provide the form to your supervisor at least 3 days in advance of the personal day you plan to take.
If you have questions, please reach out to a Rep or Exec Board member before submitting paperwork, putting your day into AESOP or alerting your supervisor verbally or via email
Rochambeau MOA
The BTA reached an MOA for Rochambeau that was approved at the June 3rd Board of Education meeting. As outlined in the email Mairead sent to members on June 3rd, without this MOA, all staff would have a 30 minute lunch (as per the White Plains contract) with no prep or planning time for TAs. Teachers in the high school would not have two prep periods, which could potentially have impacted staff at Rye Lake MS/HS, as their schedule has always been based on the Irvington HS schedule.
Additionally, this MOA provides for two half day early dismissals for students followed by a full day without students at the end of the school year, while the White Plains calendar only provides for two half day early dismissals for students. See the Board Docs for the full MOA and Mairead’s June 3rd email for more information.
Know Your Rights
Thank you to all of you who completed the Know Your Rights survey that was sent throughout last 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 #9: Under New York State Education Law and Commissioner’s Regulations, a teacher who teaches 2 years of special education and 1 year of reading has completed his/her probationary period. 72.5% of members answered it was false. The correct answer is false. Way to go!
As per NYS Ed Law CR Part 30, the teacher must have completed his/her probationary period in the same tenure area.
Free CTLE hours on AI
The AFT in partnership with the UFT is offering free CTLE hours on AI in the classroom. These seminars are in person or remote, with some asynchronous offerings as well. For more information, scan the QR code found here or visit this website to register.
Congratulations Retirees!
Ariel Farber – 20 years
Lisa Cerbone – 24 years
Eileen Yip – 17 years
Lisa Culler – 32 years
Nancy Henagan – 35 years
Manfred Jean-Louis – 16 years
Saintfort Emile – 25 years
Clotude Merot – 37 years
Lydia Mercado – 27 years
Sara Stave – 26 years
Reminders
24 paycheck option (balloon pay): You should have received a letter dated May 15, 2026 from the Business office. If you wish to discontinue with the 24 paycheck option (switch to 20 paychecks) or enroll in the 24 paycheck option for next school year, the form is due back to the Payroll office by June 30th.
Next Rep Council meeting: The next BTA Rep Council meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 17th at 4pm at Valhalla in Building D. Meeting will also be done over Zoom. Zoom link to follow. Stacey Braun, the new financial planning benefit offered to Certified Staff, will be doing a brief presentation on the services they provide.
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
Theresa Saive, Teacher Rep
Pierre Fils, CTE Rep
BOCES Teachers Association 