Baltimore Teachers Union

1. Baltimore Teachers Union Membership Meeting Wednesday, May 28, 2014 Auditorium at Lake Clifton

2. Agenda • Meditation • President’s Report • Update on PSRP Negotiations • Legislative Update – Terence Cooper • Expansion of the BTU Headquarters • Teachers and PSRPs Evaluations/JGP Report

3. President’s Report • Teacher Leaders Program • We had 17 participants this year • They worked for seven months on recommendations for policy changes in the following areas: • Participatory Budgeting • The Ethical Recruitment and Employment of International Teachers • Mandatory Early Childhood Education, • Technology Coordinators for All • The Affects of Mentoring on Teacher Efficacy and Attrition, • Social and Emotional Support for Students • Transitional Career Development programs. • The culminating event was May 14th and more than 100 people attended. • Innovation Fund – Update • BTU received a grant from the American Federation of Teachers Innovation Fund. This allowed us to participate with Lakeland and Violetville schools in STEM programs. National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future directed the Learning Studios in the two schools. We were looking forward to renewing this grant with the AFT; however, NCTAF decided that they would only participate in research, therefore, we shall not have the program for the 2014-2015 school year. • Last Pay of School Year • The last pay of the school year for 10-month employees will be June 20th for 13 days

4. President’s Report • As part of the AFT’s Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education the BTU participated in two First Book events. • In December we were able to give more 40,000 free books to Baltimore students and earlier this month we gave more than 2,000 books to students at Robert Coleman Elementary School as well as to children in the community. • Tiffany Richardson, a teacher at TenchTilghman Elementary/Middle School was announced as the Extreme Makeover winner.

5. President’s Report • Our QuEST conference was a great success, we had more than 1,000 teachers and PSRPs participate. • We had a very successful PSRP Conference in January, more than 400 PSRPs attended. • The BTU Martin Luther King, Jr. Prayer Breakfast was extremely well attended and Pastor Debnam gave a very inspiring speech • BTU’s Civil, Women and Human Right’s committee hosted their first Women’s Luncheon in March, it was very well attended. • BTU’s Public Outreach and Community Relations Committee hosted its first Prom Drive and collected several prom dresses and other accessories. They hosted a “shopping” day for students who were in need of a prom dress as well. Several students were able to get free dresses and we received coverage from the news media.

6. President’s Report • BTU took several busses to the 50th Anniversary and Commemoration of the March on Washington. • AFT/Maryland and BTU sent buses to Washington earlier this month for the commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. • We assigned teachers to participate in focus groups on Common Core • BTU had members to participate in LGBT training • BTU hosted Educational Roundtables. • BTU members have been appointed to the Public School Labor Relations Committee • Several BTU members attended the AFT PSRP Conference in Orlando last month. • BTU members have been appointed to serve on local committees, state committees, national committees and AFT committees. Those committees include, Teacher Effectiveness, Joint Oversight Committee and the AFT’s Program and Policy Council for K-12 teachers and PSRPs.

7. President’s Report • The BTU is participating with the AFT’s Human Trafficking Program. Jose Torres, the BR at Northeast Middle School is facilitating that training right now at Patterson High School. • Rogie Legaspi was selected to serve on the state teacher evaluation committee. • Kenya Campbell serves on the Virtual Learning Committee • Sita Chaitram was appointed to serve on the state Safety Committee. • Junior Achievement held a workshop on banking at the BTU Office and had several participants. • We attended several marches and rallies as well over the past year.

8. President’s Report • Teacher Evaluations – BTU has not agreed to final scores for evaluations. • Congratulations to Elizabeth Barletta at school #54 who selected as Baltimore City’s Teacher of the Year. Congratulations as well as to the MBABSE/BTU Teachers of the Year • Demorris Ervin, #250 • Chassity Beads, #251 • Nathaniel Larimore, #480 • BTU member Esther Ward was selected as an AFT National Trainer. Congratulations Esther. • The BTU held its annual Holiday Celebration in December and a great time was had by all! • The primary election this year is June 24th. Early voting is June 12-19th. If you are not registered to vote, you must be registered by June 3rd. Please call the BTU if you need help registering.

9. PSRP Negotiations • Update on Negotiations • Schedule for upcoming negotiations

10. Legislative Update Terrence Cooper, Legislative Director, AFT/Maryland

11. Expansion of BTU Headquarters The expansion of the Baltimore Teachers Union building will offer a full array of resources for all of our members. Teachers and PSRPs will be able to use the new Professional Development Center and a state-of- the-art Make and Take Room. This will allow teachers to create and then take back research based tools to their classrooms. BTU will be able to offer a community center to strengthen the relationship between educators and our neighborhoods. We will have classrooms offering a wide variety of classes to our members to keep them on the path of learning and improving in the classroom. Moving public education forward in the City of Baltimore is everyone’s goal and this new building will help us to achieve great progress.  

12. Why we should expand? • We have outgrown our current location. • The Professional Development Center will be housed in one location and this provides us with more opportunities to offer PD to our members. • We can house more colleges in offering classes at our facility. • This will allow more opportunities for our members and the community to use the building • We need to upgrade the technology to the 21st century. • There will be more space for meetings, conferences and workshops. • We will work with our health partners to provide a health and wellness center.

13. Tentative Plans First Floor These plans can be viewed on a larger scale at the BTU Office. Second Floor

14. Evaluation Update Office of Accountability Kimberly Robinson, Office of Achievement and Accountability – Teacher Evaluation Sarah Orao and Jessica Papia, Office of Human Capital – PSRP Evaluation – Room 117

15. Questions/Concerns?

16. Thank You! Have a Great Summer!!