Click Here For Info On The March 15th Quarterly Para Meeting.
10am-1pm at the CSEA Union Hall, 760 Capitol Ave, Hartford CT
QUARTERLY MEETING
PARAPROFESSIONAL COUNCIL
CSEA SEIU LOCAL 2001
DATE: January 18, 2014
TIME: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Registration @ 9:30 AM)
WHERE: Danbury High School, 43 Clapboard Ridge, Danbury
AGENDA:
OPEN POSITION – TREASURER (contact J.Smith (janette06238@yahoo.com)
•• NOTE: Lunch and mileage reimbursement
All Chapters should send at least 1 delegate.
CHAPTER MEMBERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND!
Directions to Danbury High School:
From-I-84 West - Take Exit 5 to end of the ramp. Take a left at the traffic light onto Rt. 39 and proceed up the hill. Danbury High School is on your right. From I-84 East - Take Exit 5 to end of the ramp. Go left at the light and proceed up the hill. Danbury High School is on your right.
In the event of cancellation due to inclement weather, the meeting will be held on Sat., Jan. 25th
For notification of cancellation: Go to WFSB 3
Click Here to download your copy of the Paraprofessional Fall 2013 Newsletter.
Being a Paraeducator is no PICNIC, but we can treat you to a Picnic-style lunch!
Come Join Us!
QUARTERLY MEETING
PARAPROFESSIONAL COUNCIL
CSEA SEIU LOCAL 2001
Working Together Making Us Strong and United!
ALL CHAPTERS SHOULD SEND AT LEAST ONE DELEGATE
DATE: Saturday, May 18, 2013
TIME: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Registration @ 9:30 AM)
WHERE: CSEA SEIU Local 2001 Union Hall, 760 Capitol Ave., Hartford, CT
Union Hall is accessed via easy & convenient I-84 exit
SPEAKER: Dave Glidden, Director of Collective Bargaining, CSEA SEIU Local 2001
AGENDA: By-Laws Revisions, NRCP Conference attendees’ reports,
Open position: Alternate delegate to CSEA Exec. Board
PLEASE NOTE:
Lunch will be served and members will be reimbursed for mileage to Hartford
ALL MEMBERS ENCOURAGED & WELCOME TO ATTEND!
April 3rd is Paraprofessional Appreciation Day, and this year we received an official proclamation from Governor Malloy thanking us for our hard work. The first Wednesday of each April has been set aside to show appreciation for paraprofessionals providing service in multiple educational settings to assist our students so they can be successful. CSEA wishes to join in thanking our Paraprofessionals: Your contributions are so important that one day of appreciation a year is certainly not enough.
One of CSEA’s tops priorities is instituting a series of legislative reforms to improve the careers of paraprofessionals. Among the reform ideas that have been discussed are developing a career ladder and mentoring program for paras, and conducting a comparable pay pilot study to look at pay rates for paras in Connecticut and nearby states. At the start of this session of the General Assembly, Tim Riddle, our Para Council president, and Danny Medress, CSEA’s political director, met with the co-chairs of the Education Committee. Any piece of legislation having to do with education must pass through this committee, so, we wanted to make sure the co-chairs understood and supported our issues. During the meeting, the co-chairs – Senator Andrea Stillman and Representative Andrew Fleischmann – expressed deep support for paras and agreed to work with us to put together and pass a package of legislation to reform and improve the careers of paras. The current session of the General Assembly is focused on passing Connecticut’s budget – a process that tends to suck up all the oxygen – so we will be working with other para unions and legislators to put together a reform package that can run during next year’s General Assembly session.
Which is not to say that we are sitting on the sidelines waiting for next year. In the current session of the General Assembly, there is a bill that would improve the composition of the School Paraprofessional Advisory Council. Currently, the Advisory Council is not composed of a majority of paraprofessionals – CSEA’s own, Bill Walkauskas, is now a member of the Advisory Council. House Bill 6502 fixes that problem by providing a majority of seats to paras. This piece of legislation passed unanimously out of the Education Committee last week.
FMLA For Para’s Update
After fighting for years to win Family and Medical Leave Act rights for paraprofessionals, it is frustrating that it has taken so long to finalize the needed regulations. However, Connecticut has a thorough regulatory review process, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The Connecticut Department of Labor (DOL) completed the regulations and, pursuant to Connecticut’s regulatory approval process, sent them to the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) for review. OPM reviewed the regulations and made a series of changes and suggestions. DOL is currently integrating those changes into the regulations and will soon be sending the updated regulations to the Governor’s office for sign off. After the Governor’s office signs off on the regulations, they will be sent back to the DOL to be published in the Connecticut Law Journal. Once published in the Connecticut Law Journal, the public will have 30 days to comment on the regulations. After the public comment period has closed and DOL has responded to each and every comment, DOL will send them to the Attorney General’s office. After the Attorney General’s office signs off on the regulations, they will be sent to the General Assembly’s Regulations Review Committee. The Regulations Review Committee must approve or reject the regulations within 60 days. With this timeline in mind, it looks like the FMLA for paraprofessionals regulations will be in place by July.
Click here to download your copy of the Paraprofessional Fall Newsletter
