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...