This letter was submitted to the MTA Executive Board and is re-printed with permission.

November 28, 2007

Dear MTA Executive Board Members,

At this point in my professional career I wanted to send a message to our members and felt the only proper way was through our elected leadership.  Historically, I was raised in Middletown, graduated from Middletown High School in 1969, and started a second career as a teacher in 1982.  I am in my 25th year as a teacher in this district and I am in my fifth year as a union representative.  My career has had ups and downs—the loss of a full time teaching position, the loss of my soccer coaching career, and despite fifteen years of summer school teaching experience, the denial of Summer Institute employment.  So, I speak from experience.

My concerns are with us as a unit of 600 plus.  We now appear to be fractionated when we should be unified and strong.  Due to some things out of our control it seems as if our district is made up of seven different entities, each school with its own distinct issues and problems.  We all need to understand this and allow our union leadership to act for all of us.  My personal opinion is that this is what has been occurring through our MTA leadership for the past five years.

We need to recognize the different issues that large buildings have over smaller ones, older buildings over newer ones, the diversity of our population, and our administrators’ styles, etc.  With 25% of our staff untenured we are in a tenuous postion.  We must educate ourselves in how our union operates.  An issue should go to a union representative first, then a senior building rep who can guide the member about whether an issue is contractual or not.  We should not be going over our representatives’ heads to building or district level administrators on our own.  Issues should be addressed at the building level and only brought to Representative Council if deemed necessary.  I could continue, but brevity is an issue as well.

Finally, all should refer to Sheila MacKay’s article in the October MTA
newsletter about the Union Code of Conduct and read it as often as necessary.

Thanks again for all that you do for all of us.

Sincerely,

Frank Lentino