Stances on the Proposal

BSC Chair Susan Federspiel said that over the past year the BSC has made efforts to retain more teachers of color.

“I don’t know if we have an official [stand on the fifth clause]. We certainly have made statements that we want to recruit, hire and retain additional staff of color. There’s no doubt about that. We are committed to doing that,” Federspiel said. “We are doing things to make that happen. We’re confident that we have new people in place, and that they have good ideas about how to make that happen.”

BSC member Steven Ehrenberg said he, personally, believed each group should maintain their own responsibilities and leave the issue of retaining teachers of color for the town government to solve.

“So because we think racial equity is important, we support the creation of this Office of Educational Equity. They’re tasked with improving racial equity across Public Schools of Brookline, so I want Dr. Guillory to be leading this. I don’t think this should be led by negotiations with the BEU; that seems like the wrong way to go about it to me,” Ehreberg said.

Mohamedi said diversity is a workplace issue that belongs in the contract because of its impact on all students. As a teacher, she said it is her job to care for her students, and representation in staff can help students feel seen.

“Our contract is created in order to define our working conditions. My working conditions depend on my students, and it doesn’t make sense for a contract to not include something like diversity and equity. I’ve got a kid who feels like nobody’s there for them and acts out. Are they the problem? No. The real problem is that the kid has felt unseen, ignored and unrepresented. It’s so important for kids to be able to see themselves in their teachers and mentors,” Mohamedi said.

According to Mohamadi, the BEU is not asking for unfair privileges but is seeking to prevent situations like the one in the spring of 2020 and represent groups that would otherwise go unrecognized.

“I’m not suggesting that we should give everybody professional teacher status after they work here for one year. We’ve got to try people out just like any job. But to prevent another situation like the one a few years ago, we have asked the superintendent to endeavor to give PTS early to educators who are underrepresented in the educator pool. It’s not just about race. In the elementary school the most underrepresented group in the teaching pool is male teachers. As long as the teachers are qualified and doing their jobs, why not protect the diversity of our staff from a reduction in force notice a year early?” Mohamedi said.

According to Federspiel, the BSC is seeking a contract that all members of the community can benefit from.

“We have to look at all the groups and all the stakeholders. It needs to be fair to the teachers, the staff, the students and the families. It needs to be something the community can agree with, in terms of reaching salary raises. Fair means that it’s a good contract, so the teachers are respected and treated as professionals and they get the support that they need to do a good job,” Federspiel said.

According to Federspiel, newly hired staff in certain positions, such as Jenee Uttaro as Senior Director of Equity, have helped present ideas to the BSC for how to retain more teachers of color. Federspiel said people from the Central Office visited job fairs “targeting staff and teachers of color” and “putting advertisements in very specific publications that target that population.”

Federspiel said that rather than including a clause in the contract, supervisors, including principals and the superintendent, could be authorized to make the process quicker for granting teachers professional status. Additionally, Federspiel said the BSC is doing other things to address the issue presented in the fifth clause.

“I don’t know where negotiations will take us. But, we are pretty confident that the issue is being addressed and action steps are being taken by our Central Office in our Department of Human Resources. We are confident that work is being done,” Federspiel said.