Lea Serena Headshot.jpg

Lea Serena for Vice President
@Miss_Serena2 

WHO AM I?

My name is Lea-Antoinette Serena. First and foremost, I am a mother to a beautiful 13 year old boy. I am a proud Cape Verdean and Senegalese American born and raised by immigrant parents in Dorchester, MA. My parents moved to this country in the late 70s as school aged children.  My mother is a Boston Latin alum, proud Nurse and former City Council woman. My father is a proud Madison Park alum and even prouder Purple Heart Marine. My family and I grew up attending Saint Peters Church every Sunday and the Mather Elementary School cross-generationally. I am deeply proud of my roots, this city, and the foundation public school education afforded me and my family. 

TEACHING CAREER

I began my teaching career as a Monitor Teacher Assistant (a  type of paraprofessional)  in Emotionally Impaired Sub-Separate Classrooms in Brockton Public Schools, grades K-5. I then became the lead teacher in a 3rd and 4th grade EI classroom in Fall River Public Schools. Once moving to Boston Public Schools, I transitioned to 1st grade inclusion at the Lee Academy Pilot school. Yearning to fulfill a life long dream, in 2016, I found my way home and began teaching 2nd grade at the Mather Elementary School. 

 As a classroom teacher I served on the Governing Board, Instructional Leadership team, School Site Council, Student Support Team, and School Culture Team. I was also the grade level team lead and volunteered my time finding funding to run after school programs centering around belonging for families and students.  

​I was very passionate about being an educator who believed that each child in the building was all of our students and we owed it to all of our colleagues, students, and families to be collaborative, as we worked together to ensure students were given every opportunity to succeed. 

UNION EXPERIENCE

In my first year as a lead teacher I filed a grievance on June 13th, at the advice of my mentor teacher. At this time, I barley understood what grievances were, had perfect evaluations, and was truly having a great year! On June 15th, five minutes before the end of the day I was non-renewed. Our union president was furious and tried everything to get me to stay and fight it. However, I had received a position I really wanted by the time it started to get any traction! She made me promise I would get heavily involved in my union in my next district - that union was the Boston Teachers Union and little did she know where that promise would lead me! I proudly served as your Elementary Field Rep for 4 years and am now proudly serving as your Executive Vice President with hopes to continue to do so! My previous union experience includes: 

As a Rank and File member of the BTU I was a 

  • Building Representative 

  • Regional Representative

  • Member Organizer 

  • Negotiation team member 

  • Faculty Senate Chair 

  • BTU/AFT Inquiry Project Participant 

  • AFT Teach attendee and presenter 

  • BTU/ AFT Educator Policy Program Participant 

  • Co- facilitator of the BTU Caregiver/ Educator Support group during Covid 

  • Member of the Social Committee 

  • Delegate

  • Candidate for E-board