The Nashua Teachers’ Union Board of Directors met on August 30 for their first meeting of the year.  On the agenda was Texas AFT and how they could help their colleagues in Texas.  To that end, the Board of Directors unanimously approved donating $2,415.00 to the Texas AFT Disaster Relief Fund.  The $2,415.00 is an odd number for a donation, but it has special meaning.

NASHUA, NH August 28, 2017 – Over 1,000 teachers are waiting for a new contract, but they’re not going to have one before the school year begins. For the third contract in a row, Nashua’s teachers are beginning the school year without an employment contract in place to continue the one that is expiring on August 31. This year, however, the Nashua Teachers’ Union (NTU) seemed to be on the verge of an agreement with the Nashua Board of Education (BOE) when the Board suddenly went silent after a promising meeting on June 15. Last week, the BOE finally agreed to resume negotiations in mid-September – a full three months since the parties last met. 

Bow, NH – June 24, 2017 

Yesterday, the both the Senate and the House cast their final votes, and the long slog of the 2017 legislative session came to a merciful end.  It seemed over the past two months that whatever day the House met in session, it was a beautiful day, often the only one in the entire week (remember all the chilly weather?), thereby condemning members to sit and sweat in Reps Hall.  Keep in mind, there is no air conditioning there, and on a warm day with over 400 people crammed in the room, the ceiling fans just cannot keep up.  Yesterday was no exception.

The work of the House and Senate yesterday was confined to voting on Committee of Conference reports where Senate and House conferees had come to agreement upon how to reconcile each chamber’s different version of a piece of legislation.  In this process, no further amendments are permitted, and the vote is to simply concur or non-concur with each piece of remaining legislation as designed by the conferees.  There was still debate, but business moved along briskly, enough so that we all were able to leave and enjoy much of the sunny afternoon.

The 2017 legislative session is nearly completed, with one more scheduled meeting this coming Thursday, June 22, when the House and Senate will each vote on Committee of Conference reports.  These reports concern bills where the House and Senate differed over amendments, appointed a committee to try to iron out the disagreements, and the Committee came to a resolution.  The resulting bills can now only be voted up or down, no further amendments.  

Bow, NH – June 9, 2017 

Slowly, ever slowly, the 2017 legislative session crawls towards its June 22 conclusion.  Yesterday, the House and Senate both met in session, though for the House, it was certainly the shortest meeting of 2017, not even lasting one hour.  The primary, in fact the only order of business, was to consider reports from the Senate.  These are when the Senate has amended a bill that originated in and passed the House, and now it gets sent back to the House for further consideration.  The choices are simple.  First, the House can concur/accept the Senate’s amendment, meaning the bill is now passed and sent to the governor.  The second choice is to simply non-concur/reject the Senate’s amendment and thereby kill the bill.  The third option is to request a Committee of Conference, wherein the House and Senate each appoint conferees who meet and try to reach agreement on the bill.  All Committees of Conference must finish their work by June 15, and then the House and Senate will vote on June 22 to accept or reject those Conference reports where agreement was reached.  And that, folks, should be the end of the session, until the legislative process starts to wind up again in September.