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Wednesday, April 3 is Paraprofessional Appreciation Day, a national day when we celebrate our paraprofessionals and highlight the contributions of paraprofessionals to their students and schools.

“Paraprofessionals are essential members of our team of educators, and they do critically important work every single day, helping students of all abilities to learn, grow, and succeed. Our schools would not function without them,” said AFT Massachusetts President Beth Kontos. “We have printed paraprofessional appreciation stickers and provided them to local unions around the state, and we encourage members to wear them on Wednesday, April 3 to observe Paraprofessional Appreciation Day.”

“Celebrating our Successes, Organizing for our Future”

AFT leaders in Massachusetts know that supporting our members goes beyond what happens in the classroom, or the schoolhouse, or even the Statehouse. That’s why, when the AFT started offering student debt clinics to help members struggling with student loan debt, AFT Massachusetts leaders decided to make it a statewide initiative. 

“Advocating for our members is what we do,” says Kontos. “So, as a union, we’re fighting to make college affordable and hold the student loan industry accountable for the debt crisis it has created. But we can’t just fight these big fights and ignore the reality of the massive student loan debt many of our members are struggling with. These debt clinics are about helping union members find relief so they can keep serving their communities.”

When Boston Public Schools officials announced their intention to close a middle school and two high schools last October, Neema Avashia was ready.

“In Boston, its no secret that there’s been a plan to close middle schools,” said Avashia, an 8^th grade civics teacher at the McCormack Middle School in Dorchester.

She and her colleagues had been working for two years to plan the middle school’s transition to a 7-12 school when they found out that district officials planned to close the McCormack, send students to a different school, and, after renovating the McCormack, put the building out to bid for other 7-12 schools to take

Teams of educators and school administrators from Boston, Lawrence, and Lynn recently attended the American Federation of Teachers’ Center for School Improvement Leadership Institute, a three-day conference in New York City focused on strengthening collaboration skills with district and school improvement teams to improve student achievement.

“We were delighted to offer this opportunity to school improvement teams from three school districts that are already doing amazing collaborative work in their local schools,” said AFT Massachusetts President Beth Kontos. “When educators and management work together to improve our schools, we can do so much for our students. We look forward to even more positive collaboration in the future thanks to the lessons teams learned at this conference.”

“Our public education system is underfunded from top to bottom, and through our work with the Fund Our Future coalition, we are committed to ensuring that our students and their schools have the funding they need to succeed, from preK through college,” said AFT Massachusetts President Beth Kontos. “These bills will help us support our students throughout their entire education, no matter where they come from or what needs they have. We’ve waited far too long for Massachusetts to invest in our kids, and it’s time to pass this legislation now!”

The Fund Our Future coalition is supporting two pieces of legislation that would meet the recommendations of the state’s bipartisan Foundation Budget Review Commission and the Higher Education Finance Commission.