Teachers are still on strike here. It’s now starting their third week. My son is in third grade, it’s really affecting him badly. Every day he cries about how much he misses his teacher and how much he misses school. Meanwhile negotiations are going nowhere fast. It’s being more and more clear that district management doesn’t want to negotiate in good faith. They want to bust the teachers’ union. Meanwhile 11,000 kids are out of school.
Where is here?
New Haven Unified School District. Covers Union City and a small part of Hayward, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sounds like the teachers need to take it up with the taxpayers, who I am sure fight tooth and nail against any tax increases to actually pay for those salary increases.
It’s summer. School should be over anyway.
Kids hang out at the pool and go fishing.
My week long Boy Scout camp was in June.
We’ve had threats of teachers strikes.
IIRC LR schools started a week late one year while the union and schools negotiated.
Smith is a lying asshole. That’s one thing you’ve got to know straightaway. I’ve dealt with him in person so I know.
You need to know the history to understand the full extent of the teacher’s grievances. For many years they were told the district had no money for raises. In fact they had pay cuts in the form of furlough days. Meanwhile the top administration, including Smith, all got huge raises. They would be more believable about their poverty claims if they shared the burden, but no. A lot of people here, including me, believes there is serious corruption going on. Nobody believes anything Smith or Mattos says.
An independent neutral fact finder looked at all the figures and determined the district could afford to give the teachers a raise only a little less than what they are requesting. Smith rejected the report for ridiculous reasons.
The pool is closed: It’s at the high school, where the teachers are striking.
It’s really bad for the high school students. Nobody knows when their final grades will come out or what they’ll be based on.
Update: The strike is over after three weeks of picketing. Teachers are back in class today, just in time for the last week of school.
It’s been an emotional three weeks. I’ve been to lots of meetings. School board meetings. Meetings with parents. Meetings with teachers. Meetings with administration. Meetings with politicians. Trying to get this resolved. On Friday afternoon the district came out with an offer which was accepted by the union bargaining team. On Sunday afternoon the union voted on it, and they ratified it by a vote of 60% to 40%.
Yes, there’s not much left in the school year but at least it gives the kids and teachers to wrap things up, to say goodbye to each other in a reasonable manner, and to pass out final report cards that reflect the true feelings of the teacher. Also it allows for a peaceful summer.
Most kids did not consider the strike to be an early summer vacation. High school kids interviewed said they were always on edge because they never knew whether there would be school the next day, and also because the district had a plan to create their final grades using a formula that might have violated California education law. (Some parents were planning to sue the district about that.)
My son in third grade wanted the strike to be over simply because he missed his teacher and his classmates. It wasn’t like summer vacation when all your friends have no school and are just hanging around the neighborhood like you. His classmates that weren’t in school were scattered all around the Bay Area, wherever their parents could stash them for the duration.
Anyway, I’m so happy it’s over and we are back to normal.