**PRESS RELEASE**

AFT PENNSYLVANIA URGES CAUTION ON REOPENING SCHOOLS

Plymouth Meeting, PA, January 8, 2021—On behalf of its 36,000 members and 61 locals, AFT Pennsylvania President Arthur G. Steinberg on Friday released the following statement urging the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Health and Department of Education to use caution after new guidance issued by Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine encourages districts to resume in-person learning.

It's Friday. You know what that means.

A new issue of the NTU Update!

In This Issue:

1) School Reopening Update

2) Midyear Evaluations

3) How to talk about the events of January 6

4) Quarantine Days

5) Pet Insurance 

AND MORE!

The violence that took place yesterday was absolutely disgusting. Our country is one that operates on the rule of law and belief in that law. When elected leaders threaten to undermine the rule and overturn the will of the American voters, and go on to incite others to violently attempt to overturn the will of the people, our democracy loses all moral standing. The President and his allies in Congress should be ashamed of themselves. The rambunctious MAGA supporters who operated in rebellion to the United States should be ashamed of themselves and most importantly, we as a country should be ashamed of ourselves.

The country has a dark history of meeting every effort to expand democracy and...

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Union Members! Are you aware of the Free College Benefit provided through our partnership with Union Plus? Visit http://www.unionplusfreecollege.org or call 888-590-9009 to learn more. Or click here to download the flyer. 

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The Free College Benefit Covers Amounts For Tuition, Fees Or E-Books That Are Not Covered By Federal Or Employer Education Grants. Family of Union Plus members are defined as children (or stepchildren), grandchildren (or step-grandchildren), spouses, domestic partners, financial dependents, siblings and parents.

Important notice: Unemployed, furloughed, and laid off union workers and their extended family are also eligible to enroll in Free College. The interested student should complete an inquiry form and follow the enrollment steps.

Now Enrolling For Classes Starting January 11, 2021

The following is a letter written by Superintendent James Gray to JFT President Kesler Camese-Jones. He is writing in response to a letter sent by President Camese-Jones to Dr. Gray on December 18, 2020 ― you can read that letter here.

President, Mike Strickland
billymike2002@yahoo.com

Faculty Vice President, Ralfred Hall
actcaft@yahoo.com

Staff Vice President, Mark Powell
mapowell77@yahoo.com

Secretary, Katie Meyer
katie.keone@gmail.com

Treasurer, Elaine Kohrman
ekohrman@msn.com

January 4th, 2021- Today New Orleans Public Schools announced that all schools should move to virtual-only learning by Thursday of this week. 

This is an important policy change that will help protect the health and safety of students, teachers, and all New Orleans residents who interact with those in our schools. Less than a week ago, the district had decided to insist upon in-person learning, but this caused an outcry from concerned educators, parents and students. The United Teachers of New Orleans published an Open Letter to the Superintendent and School Board outlining these concerns on January 1st, and in the subsequent days, several individual schools determined that they could not safely resume in-person learning at this time and decided to transition once again to virtual learning. MORE

Dr. Lewis and members of the Orleans Parish School Board,

We can see the light at the end of the tunnel with the distribution of the vaccine, but we cannot act with reckless abandon in the face of a rapidly spreading virus.

January 1, 2021 ~ Bow, NH

Happy New Year!  It is time to wave a not-so-fond farewell to 2020!  One can only hope that 2021 is an improvement upon the year we all just endured.  Educators are exhausted, students are tired, health care workers are burning out, and NH’s COVID infection rates and the number of deaths continues to rise with unprecedented rapidity.  Meanwhile, as the NH Legislature prepares to resume its work in some sort of fashion, the Republican majority and the governor are preparing an unprecedented assault upon public education and upon labor unions.  So gird up, the next few months are going to be busy.  We will try to keep you informed as things develop and we will be asking for your aid and involvement as we work to prevent the gutting of public education and its privatization.  But first, let’s take a look at the context and setting, as the political circus prepares to open for the 2021 session.