Colleagues,
I am pleased to inform you that earlier this evening the RTA Representative Assembly adopted a very important resolution, recommended by the RTA’s Executive Council, that reaffirmed our solidarity with all who are demanding that racial justice finally become a reality in our nation. The resolution, adopted without objection, commits us all “to support our students in this time of crisis; to build relationships with our students’ families and community; to continue to promote culturally responsive curricula and anti-racist pedagogy; to ensure that teachers know our students, their history, their culture and their realities; and to be racially just in our own interactions and practices.” The entire text of the resolution is attached below.
Additionally, the Representative Assembly unanimously endorsed a recently achieved Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), attached below, between the RTA and the Rochester City School District. The June 11, 2020 MOU stipulates that the District will, indeed, apply the already ratified provision in our contract that calls for benchmarking of our salaries to the average of the top one-third highest teacher salary increases in Monroe County. Therefore, in addition to the salary step increases that teachers already received, teachers will also receive an additional increase that represents the difference between that increment and the mutually agreed upon benchmarked 3.31%. This increase is retroactive to July 1, 2019 and will be paid as soon as practicable this summer. We are now developing and confirming the new salary schedule and will provide it to you soon. I want to thank the NYS Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) mediator for helping us to resolve this dispute and for agreeing to continue to oversee our continued negotiations this summer for a successor multi-year contract.
Thank you for your patience, for your unswerving support of your union, and especially for all that you continue to do every day for your students. As you soon begin your summer recess, please know that we will continue our efforts to achieve a fair successor contract, to ensure that schools resume in September in a way that is safe for you and for your students, and to keep you informed about the progress of all our efforts on your behalf.
Have a good and safe summer.
Adam Urbanski, RTA President