Hello, all... coming back from the All Member meeting mid-Friday, one thing I have available to discuss is a side-by-side comparison of the proposal. I'll do a detailed break down of that document tomorrow or Sunday. We are also getting more press from afar. It might just be slow news day time, but here we are in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. It's a retelling of our local paper, but hey, word is spreading...
We are getting more blog traffic, too, though still largely local: Amy Whitley gives a good treatment.
Parents are rightfully horrified—myself included—but you know what? This crisis has been a long time coming. Teacher union and district negotiations have been ongoing for a year, and other Oregon districts are approaching crisis-level disagreements as well. As I’ve commented on this week’s situation on social media, I’ve heard the same thing over and over, from parents like me all over the country: Same here, they’ve said. We have problems, too. That happened to us; wait until I tell you about our strike. So many parents have a horror story of their own to tell. While difficult and long and stressful, these past seven days ‘off’ have forced me to take a long, hard look at Oregon public education, now that the curtain has been pulled back to expose the full extent of the shambles behind it.
The District bargaining team won't be back to the table until Tuesday of next week. Meanwhile the clock is ticking on AP class credits. Attendance has dropped to under 50% district wide (Thursday, the low building was at 24% and on Friday it dipped to 22%, though in fairness, it is the alternative HS that is usually at 52%). The district average for February is 88%, on Friday, attendance was at 44%.
The Trib seems to think that because we pulled together for an all member informational session in the middle of the day that we were done with picketing for a while...
Hundreds of teachers forwent picketing this morning to meet at a conference room at the Ramada Inn on Biddle Road to dissect how the most recent round of negotiations played out.
The knives have come out on social media. The teachers' association public facebook page brought up several allegations of specific misconduct by subs and district supporters inside particular buildings during the week. The comment threads have ratcheted up the invective on both sides of the situation.