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New Teachers'
Contract Leads to
Big Win for Students
and Parents at BPS!!
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Greetings!
After two arduous years of negotiations between representatives from the Boston Teachers Union and the Boston Public Schools, there is a tentative new contract - this contract would bring student and parent voice in the schools like never before.
- School Site Councils will now include TWO VOTING STUDENT representatives, elected by the student body, on each high school's school site council. The school site council is the decision making group for each high school
- A Joint Steering Committee will be formed to oversee the functioning of school-based management structures. The committee will include FIVE PARENTS and TWO STUDENTS, marking a huge step forward for both student and parent voice. Representatives from the Boston Teachers Union and the Boston Public Schools will also be on the committee.
This contract agreement signifies that the Union and City are listening to students and parents and that they will now have a stronger voice in in decision making at BPS in two major ways.
These changes have been long in the making and came as a result of continued pressure from the Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC)/Youth on Board and the Boston United for Students (BUS) Coalition. Both groups have been integral in their push for both student and parent voice in the new teachers' contract.
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 Spoken Word Summer
 | | Spoken Word Summer Camp |
(Re)Vision: Liberate the Imagination...is a pilot program developed by Youth On Board in collaboration with Mass LEAP Collective. This Youth Spoken Word Summer Camp, brought teens from Boston and beyond, together across racial, geographic and socio-economic lines to address and imagine a new state.
From July 16th through July 21st 2012, eleven teenagers participated in 6 days of community building exercises, writing workshops, and open mics at Madison Park High School in Roxbury. They wrote together, ate together, shared stories and reflected upon the power they possess through their personal voice. The group bonded quickly, listened and pushed each other to be better at every opportunity. Several prominent performance poets and teaching artists were also invited from the Mass LEAP Teaching Artist Institute in order to offer feedback and provide a safe and positive sounding board for these youth to develop their collective voice.
The camp also offered a field trip to New Urban Arts Non-Profit Youth Space in Providence Rhode Island, where they received instruction on screen printing and book making, while also sharing poetry with NUA Students in an open mic. Saturday, found the (Re)Visionists performing in a final showcase at The Haley House Non-Profit Cafe in Roxbury. The room was packed as family, friends, mentors and youth poets from other communities gathered together to connect and cheer each other on!
(Re)Vision believes in Four Pillars when it comes to liberating the imagination: writing - a space to create, revision - a space to refine, performance - a space to share and community - a space to build relationships.
Watch the video to learn more!!
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Civic Life Report
CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) recently published a report on the civic engagement of non-college youth, "'That's Not Democracy': How Out-of-School Youth Engage in Civic Life & What Stands in Their Way." Based on several years' work, this report summarizes quantitative data, presents the results of focus groups that we conducted, and explores what other researchers have found about youth civic engagement. A summary with a link to the whole document is HERE.
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