Hello UTEA members – did you ever wonder about … ADVOCACY … did you ever ask yourself – what is ADVOCACY? Advocacy is not just a select group of people complaining to the Central Office staff and Board of Education members. Instead, advocacy is every one of our 850+ UTEA members holding up our colleagues, reaching out, talking, discussing, engaging. And we need that advocacy more than ever right now! I hope you’re out there and ready to help your colleagues. I have two requests for you. This week, the UTEA will be holding an election in every building for the Education Support Professional (ESP) of the Year. Think about the secretaries, security guards, para-professionals, and all ESPs in your building who work so very hard to help the students in our buildings – and vote to honor one of them. Don’t let this opportunity pass – read your email and vote for your ESP of the Year. And second, I'm writing out of great concern for our non-tenured teachers who are losing their jobs on July 1st because of budget cuts. Many of them are in their fourth year, many of them have multiple certifications, many of them have been here many, many years, and all of them love and want to work in Union. Please take action and fight to keep them in our UTEA family. In this stressful era of the COVID pandemic, it is not the time to cut staff. Our students need our help and firing teachers and increasing class sizes is not the way to go. In May, the Union Township Board of Education received a commitment from the federal government for $6.8 million to help reverse the damage done by COVID 19. This is more than five times what we need to keep our non-tenured teachers. The UTEA has made it clear to Interim Superintendent Benaquista and Board of Education President McDowell that this money should be used to re-hire our non-tenured teachers because cutting staff is NOT ACCEPTABLE. And we need the entire Board to agree. Please stand with us! I'm asking all members to attend the BOE meeting on Tuesday, June 8th @ 7pm. It will be live at the UHS library. Please make a commitment to your colleagues, come to the meeting, wear a UTEA shirt, speak at the mic and stand up for our non-renewed teachers! As UTEA members, I expect to see you there supporting your colleagues! Thank you. ams
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