Monday, August 20, 2007

Please Not This!

Camping was, of course, a lot of fun. We all enjoyed ourselves, and we managed to avoid most of the rain. However, when we got home I had a less-than-fun email waiting for me. Union negotiations are going "very poorly" according to the teacher bargaining team. Upon return to the summer bargaining session, the teams have failed to resolve even one of the sticking points that caused trouble to the end of the spring session.

What are the issues? Surprisingly, straight-up compensation is not one of them. One of the biggest questions is the special teacher preparation time we have each week. This is a two hour block of time during the "regular" school week where teachers are left to themselves to collaborate or work individually. Administrators want to take a percentage (how much is a big part of the debate) of this time to schedule meetings, trainings, and other admin. directed activities. Translation: instead of grading papers, planning with my team, or preparing lessons, I would have to sit in some "class" or meeting that was not directly related to my daily work.

One of the other discussion points is about the amount of work done by our special education teams. The laws are so strict now about the documentation of special education students that the teachers in this area often wash out within one to two years. Some of these people, depending on their case loads, are working 60-80 hour weeks with little or no additional compensation. The district is refusing to cap the workloads of these teachers or consider extra compensation for their efforts.

There are other problems as well, but I will not go on for pages. It's been several years, but many of us have walked the line (no Johnny Cash puns intended) before. Going on strike is emphatically NOT FUN, and I am really, really hoping we're not headed there again. Fingers crossed that they work something out in time.

1 comment:

SabraGirl said...

If the teacher's union goes on strike what are your responsibilities? Do you have to be in the picket line during the hours you would otherwise be teaching? Do you get strike pay? What if you disagree with the strike; would you be kicked out of the union if you crossed the picket line? If you got kicked out would you then not be able to teach? I'm very curious about how this works.