Joint committee to look at school stipend positions

A joint labor-management committee has been established to look at the pay for school stipend positions, according to Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard.

“That’s the result of an MOU (memorandum of understanding) that we put together at the end of the teacher negotiations,” said Howard.

Currently, there is no commitment on the part of the school committee to change any of the figures or the costs of the stipend amounts, Howard said at Monday night’s school committee meeting. She said there could be recommendations that eventually come before the school committee from the joint committee.

The joint committee includes members of the Winthrop Teachers Association’s (WTA) e-board and members of the school department.

“They need to look at all of the stipends,” said Howard. “There was a recommendation a few years ago to move them into tiers and to develop job descriptions and expectations for each one of those stipends so they will be taking part in doing that. I assume that they will ask for an increase in the salary for each one of those; so what they do is they put together a package and they deliver it to the school committee.”

At that point, the school committee would set up a subgroup meeting of the WTA e-board and the school committee’s teacher negotiation committee.

“That’s when you decide whether you’re accepting anything that they are recommending, but there is no obligation in the MOU to make any changes,” said Howard.

In other business, Howard said the school department is transitioning from using Microsoft Outlook to Gmail for its email platform, although she said the email addresses will remain the same. She said Microsoft began charging for the educational email platform last year, while Gmail offers free email service for educational institutions.

The school department will maintain a handful of Microsoft licenses for Excel, Howard added.

The school committee also held a moment of silence for three people connected to the school system who recently died.

Joseph Clark served on the school committee from 1992 to 1998 and was the chair from 1995 to 1997.

Sandra Hurley was a former medical careers teacher at Winthrop High School.

Maryalice Sharkey was an educational support professional and special education teacher who retired from the Winthrop schools in 2009. She also served as the WTA president, and also served on the school committee.