Day 29 — but at least I got paid!

Again, not a lot happened on the picket line today. We did have quite a few extra teachers marching with us, however, as we had the staff from several other schools join us today. The big news is that the union is finally getting its side out. Several teachers were handing out a notice to any motorist who would take one, while others were stuffing and sealing envelopes to send the flyer out to members of the community. My summary of the issues in yesterday's post seems to pretty much be accurate, with the exception that the union is also pushing for more local contributions for benefits, not just salary.

The big news for myself, however, had nothing to do with being up at MJHS. Waiting for me when I got home was a paycheck! To be sure, it wasn't much — $336.46, if you really need to know — but at least it's official, I'm an employee of the Marysville School District! This reflects the time I put in during August, before the strike began. I actually came out pretty good, as I had five additional days for the school-wide workshop and one additional day as a new district employee, on top of the one prep day everyone in the district worked. However, I also got a bill yesterday from the district for part of my medical deductions that, for some reason, the district couldn't deduct — so the district paid it anyway, and I just have to pay them when I can. I guess they're not all bad.

Tomorrow, a new venue! All of us from the junior high are moving up to Marysville-Pilchuck High School.

Day 28

It seems the gag order has been lifted now, because we got word that of the thirty issues brought to the table, twenty-seven have now been settled. Unfortunately, that leaves three to go, and they are big ones:

• Salary schedule: The district still wants to put the teachers on the state's salary schedule instead of revising the old one that the district has always used, and has been grandfathered in. Going to the state schedule will result in the shots being called in Olympia rather than locally, and also many of the most experienced teachers losing money (see next item). Even if the district goes to the state schedule, the district will still get a little more money because of the way things are set up, which makes me think this is a bit fishy. The district has never explained why they want to go to the state schedule, but they're insisting on it, and not backing down.
  
  
• Salary: The district has at least agreed not to cut anyone's salary — but they won't increase them, either, until the state schedule catches up with where the teacher is. A lot of teachers are not at all happy about the prospect of no salary increase at all for an unknown number of years. At any rate, the union is asking for an eleven percent increase spread out over three years, but has also stated that that is negotiable. The district is insistent that the highest paid teachers essentially take a pay cut.
  
  
• TRI: If those two weren't big enough, this may be the biggest sticking point for teachers. TRI means time, responsibility, and incentive payment, and is essentially what the district raises and pays to the teachers, on top of the state-funded salary money, as a bonus in recognition that this is a more expensive part of the state to live in, and that the teachers put in more work than is truly covered by their base salary. In the past, so long as Marysville teachers can document that they've put in a certain number of hours of extra work beyond their normal school day, they've gotten the TRI. (This is not an uncommon practice, I've seen it at work in several other districts in this area.) For this contract, however, the district is basically saying, "Fine, you want to be paid for ten days of extra work? Then you need to be here for ten extra days." The district wants to put in ten extra days in the calendar for the teachers to work — but the district gets to call the shots on eight of them, and tell the teachers what to do those days, which would very likely mean workshops or other inservices, which defeats the whole purpose of TRI, since teachers in workshops can't be grading papers, planning lessons, or anything else that they need to do for their students. The union, naturally, doesn't want the teachers to be micromanaged in that way.
  

In addition, the district is insisting on a three year contract, most likely so that even if the board is overturned after the November elections, they will still have some sort of hold over how things are being run. The union, I suspect, is hoping for a shorter contract and an intervening regime change so that the next contract negotiations are nowhere near as fractious.

In other news, Governor Locke phoned the head of the union and asked what the issues were and what he could do to help. Apparently she gave him the number of all of the school board members.

And that's about it. Short shifts the rest of this week (tomorrow through Thursday, at least, as Friday has yet to be decided), and they're mixing the sites up a bit to give everyone some variety in both where they go and who they see. Some other schools are going to picket with us tomorrow, and Wednesday we're going up to the high school.

Technical stuff

It seems that Blogger is not the best at handling archives, so my technical expert is moving the older entries off to another site. Please be patient, and should you click on a link that takes you to an adult movie website, that's not my fault! (And let me know so that it can be fixed ASAP.)

The parents in Marysville have set up a message board to discuss what can be done about the mess, and it makes for some enlightening yet frustrating reading. The address is http://pub17.ezboard.com/bisupportmarysvilleteachers, and someone even found my blog and has provided a link back to here.

Day 26 (see, I can count again!), and boy, is THIS a bombshell!

What I'm reporting is second- and third-hand stuff, but if it's true, it could really put an interesting spin on things.

From what I gather, the district sent yet another letter out to the community yesterday, and it started arriving today. Now, they've been doing this from the start, putting their spin on things. Basically, they're trying to get the community on their side, but so far it's not really been working. Well, this last letter includes details of this week's negotiations — which the mediator told everyone to keep quiet about! If the district is trying to make itself look good, they're doing a very poor job of it!

Oh, yeah, and today was my second Saturday at Sylvan. It did not go well, as I was tired and cranky, I had kids talking back to me, and the secretary came over and told me to calm down. When I'm upset, about the worst thing anyone can do is tell me to calm down! I almost walked out, and I'm seriously thinking about quitting. (Of course, if this strike goes on much longer, I may have to quit anyway, if the district has to start making days up on Saturdays.) I'd rather not be there anyway, but I do need the money...

Day 25 (I think...I've lost count of the days!)

No striking today, so not much to say, except that yesterday we were visited by supporters from all over the state picketing with us. Also, a bunch of students went down to Olympia to talk to the governor and the state superintendent to see what can be done. Not much at the state level, it seems, but the governor did encourage them to keep up the pressure and get the word out to the media. (This last bit of advice seemed a little redundant, as it was being broadcast over one of the local television stations...)

Day 25, and there will be no classes this month!

We are all taking a well-deserved break today, so no teachers will be picketing today. I thought this was a good thing, as it looked like progress was being made at least in the talks anyway, and our marching in front of our schools wasn't needed any more. After three consecutive days of talks, lasting at least eight hours each day, I figured something was happening. Well, if it did happen, it didn't last! Last night, the mediator called off talks, and they won't start up again until next Wednesday — October 1! So much for my Pollyanna-esque sense of optimism. I'm going back to bed...

Day 24

Not much to tell. Marched on the line for two and a half hours, came home. Negotiations went on for ten hours yesterday and are continuing today, so at long last there's some movement! (Why they couldn't be this productive a few weeks ago, however, I'll never understand.) The parents' "meeting" with the school board (none of who showed up, surprise surprise) last night was so full, they had to go to another building. Still no board members...

Tomorrow, we're getting a day off from picketing at last. So I'm not sure what I'll write about...

Day 23, and I don't feel so good

I'm not on the line today, the first day since the strike began that I haven't been up there supporting my colleagues. I woke up in the middle of the night with an intestinal bug, and spent much of my time dealing with that. I think the worst of it is over, but I think it's a good idea to just rest today anyway.

Negotiations should have started up again right about now. Let's hope there are answers soon.

The kids doing the sit-in? Of course the district wouldn't let them camp out overnight on district property. So some homeowners across the street let them sleep on their lawns last night. This is a very cool district to work in, I just hope I can get to work soon.

Negotiations update

Both sides met for eight hours today, and are scheduled to meet again at 11:00 tomorrow. Wow, two days in a row with talks! Progress at last! However, all sides have agreed not to discuss anything until there's an actual agreement.

Meanwhile, the kids at the sit-in are all over the news. Some seem to be pro-teacher, but the mood is generally, "We want to start school!" So do I, guys...

Day 22

As I type, the two sides are meeting in a motel down the road in Everett. Let's hope there's actual negotiating going on, and not the shenanigans the district has pulled earlier. In the mean time, about a hundred students are staging a sit-in in front of the district office. On the news report, it looks like they're having fun, but they're also taking it seriously. One student, however, blames the strike on the teachers' greed, which tells me that the union is not doing a good job of getting the word out as to what the actual issues are, or how the district has been botching their job. It was the district that waited nearly two weeks to offer a counterproposal, not the teachers. It is the district, not the teachers, who are trying to end this strike through propaganda and intimidation. It is the district, not the teachers, who claim there's no money while giving the central office staff huge raises and extravagant perks. Trust me, kid, we want to get back to work, but not under the conditions the district is trying to impose on us!

Yesterday, while I was out on the line, the Seattle school district called to see if I was available to substitute there. I haven't worked in Seattle for over four years! Things must be bad there if they're calling me after all this time. When Laura said that I got a full-time job in Marysville, the reply on the other end was, "Oh, the poor man!" I will be if this strike goes on for much longer...

A few quick items I left out earlier

The strike is over — in Lake Stevens. They settled over the weekend and went back to school today after a two week strike.

Sylvan called. They need me tomorrow after all. But at least it's for teaching, not pulling. So I can just sit and teach.

And the teacher who got the ticket for honking on Friday? He will probably still have to go to court and pay a fine, but the union has stepped in on his behalf, and the fine will in all likelihood be greatly reduced.

Day 21

Thank goodness, they don't need me at Sylvan this week until Thursday! Now maybe I can get some rest!

Not much to tell, again. We marched at the school for three hours, then went up to the service center and marched there for two more. And that was it. No major developments, but I did find out that we are one of only three districts in the whole country currently on strike (and a big hello and "hang in there!" to my striking brethren in Somerset, Pennsylvania and Benton, Illinois). Tomorrow should be interesting, when the students' sit-in begins. I hear they're going to have tents and sleeping bags and porta-potties and the like. Should be fun watching the news reports. And me, I only have to be there for two and a half hours tomorrow.

Yet another week without school...

Sorry I've been so lax on posting lately, but I've been very busy and/or tired. I had hoped to get a lot done this weekend, but two big family events came up suddenly — one of them being a baby shower for my sister visiting from West Virginia, and the other being Laura's brother's wife coming from Maryland for a visit with our latest nephew. He's very charming. On top of that, I've been working hard at Sylvan, but fortunately they gave me Saturday off so I could get some badly needed rest.

"All well and good," I can hear you say, "but what about the strike?" Oh, lots of developments there! Thursday proved to be not much, just our usual picket line at the school. Friday was more interesting, as we finally started picketing the central administration office. This actually started Thursday, but they're rotating schools in and out, so our first shift was Friday morning. We were there for two hours, then as we left, many of us honked our horns to those still there. Well apparently one of my colleagues honked a little two eagerly, and too near the cop who had come to keep us all orderly, as he got pulled over and given a ticket. Of course, word got back to the line, and by the time the cop had written the ticket, over $100 had been collected to pay his fine! I really like the teachers in this district!

Talks continued for another six hours on Thursday, but it sounds like not a lot happened. The district is still offering the same money, just shifting it around so a different group gets their pay cut. The district has already cancelled school for all of this week, and talks aren't scheduled to resume again until Tuesday, so I doubt I'll be back to work any time soon.

Now the students are getting involved. One student at the high school, who wanted to go back to school, went to the district and got their latest proposal, and did some number crunching. Sure enough, he found that the teachers would be losing money. He's now in favor of the strike. And the ASB president at the high school has started organizing a sit in at the district headquarters to get everyone back to talking. I have no idea how effective that will be, but anyone who claims that the students aren't learning anything from this strike should think about what these students are doing.

The parents, meanwhile, decided not to try to meet with the school board yesterday. Instead, they've scheduled a meeting for Wednesday night, and basically told the board, be there or else. I don't hold out a lot of hope for that, however, as the board has made it very clear that they're not going to meet with anyone until the strike is settled. Yeah, that's a real mature way to handle conflicts...

One of the board members lives right across the street from one of the elementary schools, and seems to be cracking a bit. He called the cops to ticket teachers' cars near his house because they were blocking mailboxes! The police came out, took one look, and said there was no illegal activity going on.

The MEA's office was vandalized. Someone threw a brick through the window.

One of the district's latest tactics? They're accusing the strike of being all part of a conspiracy by the state union, the WEA. Uh-huh, yeah. I don't see how you can convince 98% of the teachers in a district to be part of a conspiracy. But if it is a conspiracy, I wish someone would actually tell me so that I can start denying that there's a conspiracy.

And finally, the one school board position that had no one file now has candidates. The incumbent, who told people how much she hated the job and didn't want to do it anymore, filed, along with two challengers. This all happened after the primary, so there will actually be three candidates on the November ballot. One of the candidates — not the incumbent — was at district HQ on Friday passing out campaign leaflets and envelopes for contributions. I'm sure she'll be getting some money from teachers for her campaign (I just wish I could contribute). For those keeping score, there are five seats on the school board, and three of them are up for election in November. If the results of the primary are anything to go by, there could very well be three brand new school board members come November.

Day 16, ho hum...

Not much happened today. We picketed for a couple of hours, some guy came up and started yelling at some of us but left before security could come, and that was about it! Tomorrow promises to be something different, but all we've been told is to arrive at the school at 8:00. I suspect we're actually going to picket at the district service center...

BTW, the school board has resorted to not answering their phones any more because of all the negative comments they're getting from the community — the same community, I might add, that elected them to office and that they are supposed to be serving. So what does this mean? The principals are having to field all the angry calls, that's what. Yeah, like they're not already caught in the middle as it is...

Yesterday's very interesting developments

• Negotiations not only started yesterday, they actually went on for six hours! I think that's longer than all other negotiations combined since the strike began. No, no settlement yet, but the next session is tomorrow, so maybe something will happen sooner than later.

• In the one primary election for a member of the Marysville school board, the MEA-backed challenger defeated the incumbent 57% to 27%. There was a third candidate who will be dropped for the general election in November, but hey, what kind of message does that send to the board?

Day 15, and things are wearing thin...

Today, we had our first real setback in keeping it all together. Our picket captain and another teacher got into a big shouting match, right on the corner where all of us and all the traffic whizzing by could see it. I don't really know what the issue was, and I frankly don't care. I understand that nerves are getting frayed and we're all tense, and it has to get out at some point. But that was not the place to handle it! The district is trying to break us apart, and right there, we handed them the first crack on a silver platter. We expect our students to resolve their differences in a mature way, so why couldn't they? To make matters worse, a handful of other teachers were also getting in on it, adding their input, while the rest of us did our best to avoid the situation. Me, I was so disgusted by the display and all the negative energy that I just stayed at the other end of the street for a while. At least those two later calmed down enough to part, then it looked like they later got back together, away from prying eyes, and calmly talked it out and ironed things out, but it still left a sour taste in my mouth.

Later on, we all — and I mean all — went to a local farm for a pep rally. Yes, every teacher in the MEA was invited, and it was the first time so many of the teachers had gotten together since the strike vote was taken over two weeks ago. It was a lot of fun, we got pep talks from union presidents from all over the area, the WEA, and others. And we sang protest songs — one of which was contributed by my very own wife, Laura! It was impressive hearing all those teachers singing the Marysville Redux version of "Solidarity Forever," but it was even more impressive seeing it on the news later that afternoon! (Oh, yeah, you can also catch a glimpse of me marching in front of my school at one point.)

Anyway, a "new" proposal is on the table later today — the bargaining teams are meeting right now as I type — and a short shift tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll be at Sylvan pulling books this evening as our regular puller sprained her ankle...

Day 14 of the strike

Okay, word of explanation time first. I've renumbered the strike days to take weekends into account, as that's how it seems to be done traditionally in this state. It was two weeks ago today that the MEA voted to walk out, with 98% voting yes. Let me just say that again: ninety-eight per cent! To get that percentage of nearly six hundred teachers to agree on something this big, it must be needed. Too bad the district didn't get the message right away...

Anyway, today was a very bipolar day for me. I went in feeling very useless, and that we weren't making any difference at all, and why were we on the picket line if the district wasn't even going to talk until Thursday? Well, I felt a lot better today after the next session was moved up to tomorrow afternoon. Hmm, and tomorrow is primary election day, and one of the board members has two challengers... Anyway, this session may not result in anything, but at least there's something going on!

Tomorrow, we're marching for two hours (and since our school is also a polling place, we're just sticking to the main drag, and not in front of the building), then going to a nearby farm for a rally with the entire MEA. The media will be there, and maybe our side will come out at last. We're still getting all kinds of nasty accusations about being greedy and hurting the children and all that, but there's also a lot of pressure being put on the superintendent and the school board by parents. That, ultimately, will very likely bring about the end of this. I just hope it's soon...

My other teaching job, day 1

Well, since this is a blog about teaching, and not just a strike, I may as well mention my other teaching job, which officially started today. For the first time, the Sylvan I've been working at the last two years is offering Saturday morning classes, and I offered to teach then, as I thought I'd be too busy during the week to work any evenings during the week. (As long as I'm on strike, however, I've made myself available for evenings, and they've atually been using me.) Today was the first day of Saturday morning classes, and I was the only teacher there. (Okay, not quite true. Sharon, our head teacher, was also there, but she wasn't teaching, but administering tests. I was the only teacher there doing any teaching.) It was even more laid back than Sylvan usually is, as there was only our small group each hour. Of course, this also meant that if I needed a book or take care of some other little task, I had to take care of it myself, as our usual assistants weren't there. We also had to keep it down, as there were some other students scattered around taking progress tests and the like. But overall it went pretty well. It was only at the end of the morning (technically afternoon by that time) after the students left that I hit the wall and slowed up. Still, I managed to get everything done in time. This extra job should prove to be a good way to get a few extra dollars in my pocket.

Day 9, and no end in sight...

Marysville has cancelled school for ALL of next week. Yeah, that shows a lot of confidence in the "negotiation" process...

Everyone was back on the line today, so it didn't feel like a ghost town after 11:00 like it did on Wednesday, when there were only sixteen of us.

Good news for the union (but not first year teachers like me): An arbitrator ruled in their favor over a little tiff last year, so they will get paid for the day the teachers went to a big rally in Olympia. (If you want the details, ask me in the comments section, and I'll devote an entry to it this weekend.) This probably bodes well if this strike goes to court or arbitration, but I'd rather be in the classroom.

And on a lighter note, the Spanish teacher and I are half-jokingly thinking about an all-staff production of You're A Good Man Charlie Brown. Our picket captain (who's also my roommate) has already agreed she'd make a great Lucy, and if I dye my hair blond I could probably be Schroeder...

"Negotiations" aren't going to start again until WHEN?

I just saw a report on the news that there are going to be no "negotiations" (and yes, I meant to put the quote marks there) until next Thursday! So what I want to know is, whose bright idea is that? And is there anything the union can do to speed up the process — or, since the district keeps threatening to do it to us, can we take the district to court to actually bargain???

Days 7 and 8 of the strike

Not a lot going on again yesterday. I couldn't walk as much because the calluses on my blistered toe fell off, and now it's very tender. For the sake of my poor toe alone, I hope this ends soon. And it seems that, at yesterday's first negotiation meeting since the strike began, the district at least backed off from going to the state schedule. Well, it's a start. Today, in honor of the second anniversary of the 9/11 hijackings, we're not striking, but will be doing service projects instead. I'm going to wimp out, however, and let my toe heal instead. Besides, I'm teaching SAT Math at Sylvan for the first time tonight, so I need to spend some time with the teacher's manual so I know what I'm doing there. Tomorrow, no split shift, we're all walking from 8 to 1.

Day 6 of the strike

Wow, a lot less to write today. Short shift, but unexpectedly good weather. There's finally a mediation session this afternoon, so maybe there will actually be some progress!

Day 5 of the Strike (or Day 7 if you count weekends)

Not a lot to report, so I'll just do it in bullets:

• We're going on shifts starting tomorrow, so I'll only be on the line from 10:00 to 1:30.

• Yea! There will finally be another negotiation meeting on Wednesday!

• Laura (my wife) came up to see the school and offer moral support today. As there was a special meeting for new teachers, she took my place for a while, carrying my sign around.

• The weather was much more pleasant for this sort of thing today, overcast and much cooler. But they're talking rain beginning tomorrow.

• At the new teachers meeting, both the MEA and WEA assured us that, basically, everything will be all right and work themselves out in the end. We also got a little more background about how all this bad blood came about (much of it I was already partially familiar with, but it was nice to get the details).

• The local news/talk station talked about the strikes in both Marysville and Lake Stevens this morning, including a guest from the WEA. The callers very obviously do not understand just what it is teachers do and how hard they really work.

• To boost morale, we had a drawing, with entries based on how many times you walked the line. Of course, I ended up winning. My prize? A foot rub from someone in the math department. Trouble is, I'm in the math department! Do I have to alienate one of my colleagues? Or should I just rub my own feet? (Regardless, before I could collect, I had to take off for the new teachers' meeting.)

Gee, I guess I had more to say than I thought!

We've got company now

The Lake Stevens school distict, just to the southeast of Marysville, has also voted to strike, beginning tomorrow. Unlike us, they actually started school last week, in the hopes that an agreement could be reached. But tonight, the LSEA voted against their contract with an eighty percent majority. And it sounds like their school board was trying some of the same tactics that Marysville is using. The teachers' bargaining team was told that they could not see the district's proposal unless they agreed to announce that there was a tentative agreement. Excuse me? How can there be an agreement under that kind of blackmail? Ah, well. I just wanted to let our brothers and sisters in Lake Stevens know, we're with them!

Day 4 of the strike — or is it a lockout???

First off, my apologies to my regular readers, but I wasn't able to blog yesterday because of connectivity troubles. They seem to have been mostly ironed out now, but I'm sure my wife will complain about it anyway...

Yesterday was a shortened day, we only walked until noon. The big bombshell that was dropped on everyone was that the district cancelled school for all of next week, so I take it they're not very confident anything will happen in that time. This has got me thinking, is this really a strike now? The district has refused to actually do any negotiating from the start of the process, we had our keys taken from us the week before the strike began (or, in my case, I was never even issued any keys), and now even if everything is settled tomorrow, there will be no classes to go back to next week. The district is trying to strongarm the union into a deal, which doesn't sound like they value us as much as they claim. Well, at least there won't be any replacement teachers, at least in the next few days. By the way, my colleagues gave me special thanks for being the only new teacher to be on the line for the entire first week.

After picketing, I went up to see my grandmother, a retired Marysville teacher herself. We had a great visit, she took me out for lunch, and she's about as pleased as I am at the whole situation. Many district parents held a rally outside the district headquarters, and I could hear it from my granny's condo, and it was on all the local news channels last night. Now if the district will actually bargain in good faith, some progress might actually be made!

Day 3 of the strike

Not much to say today, it was more of the same. At least the principal came out to say hi, everyone has been very sympathetic that, as a new employee to the district, I'm sort of caught in the crossfire, and my toe, while not blistered any more, is still hurting like crazy, and I can't figure out why. I've gotten extremely grumpy, which has gotten my wife grumpy, so now we're grumpy at each other, and every little thing seems to set us off, notably when I probe my toes trying to figure out why the right little one still hurts so bad.

So I need some cheering up, darn it! So here, from the home office in Boring, Oregon, is the Top Ten Good Things About This Teachers' Strike!

10. Picketing helps give you a nice tan.
9. All the nice people in their cars giving us the "You're Number One" salute.
8. Get a chance to talk to colleagues about something other than school.
7. Kids who are joining in actually find out their teachers' first names.
6. After this, that weird kid in fifth period who eats paste will seem like a little angel.
5. Walking the picket line is helping me catch up on all that summer exercise I never got around to.
4. Lunch? Potluck picnic on the sidewalk!
3. No pesky lesson plans to write or papers to grade.
2. Why would we want to be in a stuffy old classroom on a sunny day in the Puget Sound area?
1. Three words: Bonding with colleagues!

Day 2 of the strike

My legs are sore, I'm chafing, I have a blister on my right little toe, I'm slightly sunburned, and I'm not getting anything for my efforts. If I'd known that this is how my first days of my new teaching career would go, I might have reconsidered, or kept applying in other districts. Already this is looking to be a long fight — there won't even be another negotiating session until Monday — and the district has declared a "state of emergency" and is threatening to take the union to court to get us back to work without a contract. Fortunately we also have a lot of community support, although there are the few crackpots who think we're somehow not entitled to make our voices heard or that we should all be fired or something ridiculous like that. And as we're the only school on the main drag of downtown, we're probably giving our cause the most visibility, and getting the brunt of the bouquets and brickbats.

I'm not happy about this whole situation. I'm really not happy that our union was forced into this decision. But from everything I've heard, I think I've figured out what the biggest issue in this strike is. It's not, ultimately, about the money or workload or other such things that you can put into a contract. It's about trust, respect, and communication. The district made an offer back in June and basically said, "Take it or leave it." The union made counterproposals, but the district never made any new proposals, even when a mediator got involved. The word "negotiation" here was a joke, as there was no negotiating going on. One side just dug in their heels and said, "This is how it is," without giving an inch. The district has pulled other tactics like this over the past couple of years, and it just seems to be that the teachers have gotten sick and tired of being treated as if they don't matter. I suspect that if the district had come in and said, "Look, we need to make a few changes, and here's why, and if we work together, we can come to an agreement that works for all of us," today I'd be telling you about my second day of teaching. But now it's getting ugly, with talk of lawsuits and security guards patrolling our campus. The teachers want to teach, despite some of the propeganda that's being bandied about, but they want to teach as respected members of the community and a part of the process, not as some sort of automatons who can be ordered about and told what's good for them. We are not children or pets, and we don't want to be treated like we are.

Day 1 of the strike

Not sure what to say here, really. We walked up and down the street in front of the school carrying signs for a few hours, and now my legs are sore. (I've been meaning to get some more exercise in this summer, but this isn't quite what I had in mind!) So far as I can tell, there hasn't been much movement, if any, and the district has already cancelled school for the rest of the week. Tomorrow, I take a chair (so I can rest once in a while), and wear shorts and a hat, as the weather is supposed to be warm and sunny again tomorrow, but probably not as hot as today. And we're having barbecue for lunch tomorrow.

I'm on strike now.

I wanted to get quite a bit done this weekend to get ready for what was supposed to be the first day of school tomorrow. I didn't get everything done, but I certainly got enough done so that I could start. But let's just say that I probably now have a few more days to get ready, as my union voted this evening to go on strike. So, I report to my building at 8:00 tomorrow to start picketing. (At least this will give me a little time to sleep in — normal report time is 7:30.) So I guess this will temporarily be a blog about a teacher on strike.