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| Expanded Learning Time Information | |||||||||||
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ELT MOA's Ratified The members of the FTA voted in favor of the Memorandum of Agreement for the implementation of Expanded Learning Time at Brophy Elementary and Cameron Middle Schools beginnin Fall 2008. Thi smeans that the Association and School Committee agree on the wages, hours and working conditions under which members at these schools will be working if the district chooses to implement ELT and the state legislature approves the funding as proposed in Governor Patrick's budget. The votes in favor for the 4 units were as follows: Unit A - 76% Expanded Learning Time Facts Many members were unable to attend the informational meetings and have been contacting us with questions. The following are questions that have come up repeatedly regarding ELT. Q: Where does the funding come from? A: ELT is a grant funded program. The Massachusetts legislature allocated $13,000,000 in the FY'08 budget to fund ELT programs. This amount is expected to increase in the FY'09 budget. Q: What will happen to the funding if Framingham does not elect to implement ELT? A: The funds will be given to another district that has submitted a plan, but is currently on a waiting list. Q: What will happen if the funding is cut? A: The two schools in Framingham participating in the program will immediately revert to the old schedule in the event that the funding is cut or inadequate to cover the cost of the program. Q: What will happen to families that do not want to participate in the longer day? A: If a family prefers to stay with the shorter school day, they can choose to send their children to another school in Framingham. Q: How does the staff at Cameron and Brophy feel about Extending the school day? A: After the year long planning process, having debated the pro's and con's of ELT, the staff at Cameron has approved the MOA by a 78% majority and at Brophy by a 76% majority. For more information go to http://www.framingham.k12.ma.us/crd/FAQ.htm Remember ALL FTA members will voting on the ELT MOA's on Wednesday April 2nd between 2:15 and 5:15 in the Framingham High School cafeteria. View a video about ELT Reminder Expanded Learning Time (ELT) Informational Meetings will be held *These salary schedules have not yet been confirmed between the MA *The ELT schedule is based on an 18% increase in salary for an 18% increase in time. Unit A members will not earn the full 18% if they only work a portion of the extended program. The negotiated settlement is based on a minute for minute compensation. That is, members will be paid according to their hourly rate on the salary scale. For example, if a member's day is extended by 5 hours, he/she will be paid for 5 hours at an hourly percentage of this/her step and lane. DISTRICT WIDE VOTE ON EXPANDED LEARNING TIME Yesterday afternoon (March 18) the staff at both Cameron and Brophy voted in favor Expanded Learning Time
Brophy Elementary School and Cameron Middle School have spent the last 2 years working on an Expanded Learning Time (ELT) plan for their schools. Their plan has been accepted by the DOE and is in place to begin September 2008. On March 17th , the staff at both Brophy and Cameron voted in favor of the ELT Memorandums of Agreement (MOA) that had been negotiated for each unit. In order for these schools to go forward, the MOA for each unit must be ratified by the FTA membership district wide. It will be ratified by a simple majority of those voting on Wednesday, April 2nd. Expanded Learning Time is a program that expands the school day for students by 25%. For students, the redesigned school day includes an increase time in the core subjects, additional activities tied to the curriculum that are designed to enhance student learning, community service, and programs sponsored by community partners. For educational professionals, the longer school day includes collaboration, professional development opportunities and increase planning time. Massachusetts is the first state in the country to implement Expanded Learning Time. Governor Patrick in his proposed budget has allocated $13 million to continue ELT in districts currently participating and to fund schools planning to implement ELT in the 2008-2009 school year. This would bring $1300 per pupil into the budgets of Cameron and Brophy to cover the costs of implementation. In the negotiated MOA’s, the district has agreed to terminate the Expanded Day and revert to the old schedule if the state funding is insufficient to support the program. This means that the FPS district budget will not be used to fund ELT. ELT schools receive funding on a yearly basis. The DOE will review the success of ELT in each school, recommend changes to the plan, and consider approval for funding before the program can continue the following year. The negotiated FTA agreement is for one year only as well. Each MOA will need to be renegotiated before the program can continue. There are currently 3 more schools – Fuller, Hemenway, and Wilson – that have received planning grants from Mass 2020 to explore the possibility of implementing ELT in their schools for the year 2009-2010. There will be informational meetings held on March 25th at the high school room H100 from 2:30-3:30 and on March 26th at the Barbieri auditorium from 3:30-4:30 . These meetings are planned to inform you about Expanded Learning Time as well as the MOA’s. We realize that there is a lot of misinformation out there. Please plan on attending in order to get the facts. The district wide ELT vote is scheduled for Wednesday, April 2nd at the high school cafeteria from 2:15-5:15 . Members of all units should plan to vote on their respective ELT MOA. |
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1253 Worcester Road #102;
Framingham, MA 01701 |
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