Welcome Back!

Welcome Back Speech

Hello Everyone

Welcome back to all our returning veterans of the Weymouth Public Schools, as well as to all the new people who are joining the Weymouth Public Schools and the Weymouth Educators’ Association for the first time. We hope that everyone had a relaxing summer with family and friends, and are ready to start an exciting new year.

I would have given this speech and greet you in person as I do every year, but because of the District’s decision not to hold a colloquium this year so we can spend more time getting our classes put together (probably much to everyone’s liking), it will have to be by email.

For those who do not know me, my name is Mike Murphy and I’m the president of the WEA. Together with me again are Tina Conte, our VP, Heike Tuplin, Treasurer & New Member Liaison, and Katie Monteiro, our secretary. Our office manager is Sheila Donovan in the event you need to call the office for anything. I would like to thank them for all of their hard work last year and over the summer on different projects. Together with the officers are our Executive Board and Representative Council who meet monthly to tackle the various issues that come up during the year, vote on the budget, and work on an individual basis with the membership when there is need. Lastly, thanks to all those people who volunteered to work on various committees, attended workshops, or simply got involved to help their colleagues. We all worked very hard with the administration last year to make life a little bit better than in previous years, and I think we succeeded.

Speaking of administration, during our tenure, we have had to deal with difficult people at times, but we have finally landed on a team of people at the Central Administration that understands and cares about the staff and students at the Weymouth Public Schools. I thank Mel Curtin and her team for working with us! That bodes well for everyone when we can sit down and talk out issues rather than go the grievance route or worse.

Although there are many issues that can be worked out between the District and the WEA, there are still problems out there that there is no easy fix. Currently, the budget is behind much of those. We have suffered through some financial setbacks over the last couple of years that saw layoffs and resulted in the lack of support in our classrooms. This will change as it always has. If there is one thing that I’ve learned in my 32 years is that school finances are cyclical. We will experience hard years, but we will also see more lucrative ones.

On a personal note, last year did not start well for us and never really got better in the way of our friends and colleagues. Last year we lost several young educators who were stalwarts in our buildings, well-liked by both colleagues and students, and productive union members. Nothing ever changes the feeling of loss, but together, we have felt the feeling of solidarity and empathy, as we came together as a community to help each of us through the tragedies. We will miss everyone we lost, but we will move on because that is what they would want us to do.

Moving forward, this is our mission for this year:

1.    It is our hope that we can settle the three contracts (Units A, C, D) that will begin negotiating this year. Our last couple of negotiations have been extremely positive and I believe that we can do it with full support from all of you. There is never a need to go into a school year without a contract.

2.    We will also be welcoming another Unit in our WEA family. The IT folks have asked to join us, and we will be starting the negotiating process for them as well.

3.    We will also be preparing for another contract in September 2026 (Unit B).

4.    Lastly, we will continue on a positive path servicing the students of Weymouth and work to make this town’s public schools the envy of the state. In all my years serving in this capacity, I have had the pleasure in meeting most of you, so I can tell you, this District has the best educators in the state. If I didn’t believe that, I would have stepped down a long time ago. So, this year we continue to move forward because:

We are ready!

We are prepared!

We are resilient!

We are empathetic!

We are Weymouth Strong!

We are the WEA!

It is my hope to be at your buildings early this year to introduce myself to those I have not met, and to say hello to those I’ve known for years. I will be making sure that we recognize our one-year members, as well as those who have reached the 25-year mark.

Finally, I would like to let everyone know that our yearly Friends of Education Award is going to SEPAC this year. SEPAC is our SPED advocate group in the town that work tirelessly to help and support the many children in the District who have disabilities. They also help administration and staff in their efforts to meet those challenges. So, to the entire group at SEPAC, we would like to say congratulations and thank you for all you do!!!

I wish you the best of luck this year and please do not hesitate to contact any of us with any questions, comments, or suggestions. Please get involved with the WEA as changes will be happening and we need you to step up. Be prepared to work with us to get the negotiations settled by the end of the year. And finally, work with us to continue our quest to make our buildings and working environment a safer place for everyone.

Thank you again, from all of us for everything you do, and my best wishes to all of you for a great year.

In Solidarity,

Mike, Tina, Heike, Katie & Sheila