MV teacher unionization effort?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re 00:18 - the teachers will be well aware of the cost of dues. Clearly they are ok with it.

And the immediate PP is right. If MV can’t run the school without squeezing teachers to the point they want a union, the model is bad and the school should close or be restructured.

Not always the case...it's all well and good until your paycheck is effectively smaller despite a raise.

Teachers are not dumb. Everyone knows that unions charge dues and they would not join if they didn't want to pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re 00:18 - the teachers will be well aware of the cost of dues. Clearly they are ok with it.

And the immediate PP is right. If MV can’t run the school without squeezing teachers to the point they want a union, the model is bad and the school should close or be restructured.

Not always the case...it's all well and good until your paycheck is effectively smaller despite a raise.

It is beyond condescending for people on the outside to assume what the educators who have joined the union understand and what they don't.

[Anonymous]

Also condescending - using emojis and saying you're going to sit back with your popcorn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And let's be clear - the teacher's unions don't give a care for charter teachers - they want charters to close or come back into the traditional school system.

Weird and ahistorical claim. Charters were Al Shanker's idea!

Way to twist the truth. Unionized charter schools were Al Shanker's idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also condescending - using emojis and saying you're going to sit back with your popcorn.

Unlike the teachers at Mundo Verde, I've worked in traditional public schools, as part of a union and in an ununionized environment AND in charter schools both with and without a union. I'm not condescending, I'm speaking from my lived experience. The truth is that the teachers who formed the bargaining unit definitely care about their working conditions and their kids - but the folks they're working with at the AFT care about neither. They care about ruining charters and choice on general principle. It will take a while before the teachers realize that - I realize the popcorn comment may sound mean but it's all drama and not good for the kids ultimately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's been great for DCPS and Chavez. I'm sure it will be great for MV too.

This would be the end of MV as we know it.

Why? Because the teachers would be able to negotiate better working conditions?

What a joke. DCPS - we all pay the union and the working conditions suck.

This makes me laugh. I worked at a suburban school that had no union. We had no seat at the table and were required to do so much more than I do here in dc.

So being in the union means that you don't have to work as hard? We are clearly in different parts of DC schools. This is why people have a bad view of unions because of the idea that teachers don't have to do as much.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the entitled generation. It doesn't matter than it was "my" choice where to teach. Instead, the place "I" chose should give "me" the benefits of the place "I" didn't choose because "I'm" an awesome teacher and deserve it.

A prior poster provided the hard facts about how and how much charter schools get funded vs. DCPS. Damned the facts, let's unionize the teaching staff at charter schools, demand salaries and benefits beyond what their funding can support, drive them into the red, and cause them to be shuttered for financial failure.

Are there 1 or 2 or maybe 3 charter schools that are paying the top brass too much? Yes, and they should be corrected immediately.
Are the rest making the best use possible with inadequate funding? Probably.

[Anonymous]

I know there are a lot of people who want to believe MV is amazing because their pre-schooler just got into the 8th Street campus and they need to justify their decisions, but believe me, this isn't just about teacher pay. The Administration isn't ever transparent with any of its stakeholders and it makes decisions based only on the bottom line, not the best interest of the students.

When the majority of parents felt the need to sign a petition protesting the school expansion, people should have looked closer and asked why.
When the majority of teachers feel compelled to start a union just to be heard by their own administration, people should ask why.

Do you really think this is about a few naive or whiney teachers being duped by the AFT?

Their discontent isn't a bug in the growing process of a new school. It is a feature of MV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to the entitled generation. It doesn't matter than it was "my" choice where to teach. Instead, the place "I" chose should give "me" the benefits of the place "I" didn't choose because "I'm" an awesome teacher and deserve it.

A prior poster provided the hard facts about how and how much charter schools get funded vs. DCPS. Damned the facts, let's unionize the teaching staff at charter schools, demand salaries and benefits beyond what their funding can support, drive them into the red, and cause them to be shuttered for financial failure.

Are there 1 or 2 or maybe 3 charter schools that are paying the top brass too much? Yes, and they should be corrected immediately.
Are the rest making the best use possible with inadequate funding? Probably.

To the contrary. Educators often form unions to band together to create a better environment for teaching and learning. It is a form of taking MORE responsibility for the students not less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know there are a lot of people who want to believe MV is amazing because their pre-schooler just got into the 8th Street campus and they need to justify their decisions, but believe me, this isn't just about teacher pay. The Administration isn't ever transparent with any of its stakeholders and it makes decisions based only on the bottom line, not the best interest of the students.

When the majority of parents felt the need to sign a petition protesting the school expansion, people should have looked closer and asked why.
When the majority of teachers feel compelled to start a union just to be heard by their own administration, people should ask why.

Do you really think this is about a few naive or whiney teachers being duped by the AFT?


This poster truly understands Mundo Verde and their
dictatorial administration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know there are a lot of people who want to believe MV is amazing because their pre-schooler just got into the 8th Street campus and they need to justify their decisions, but believe me, this isn't just about teacher pay. The Administration isn't ever transparent with any of its stakeholders and it makes decisions based only on the bottom line, not the best interest of the students.

When the majority of parents felt the need to sign a petition protesting the school expansion, people should have looked closer and asked why.
When the majority of teachers feel compelled to start a union just to be heard by their own administration, people should ask why.

Do you really think this is about a few naive or whiney teachers being duped by the AFT?

Their discontent isn't a bug in the growing process of a new school. It is a feature of MV.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to the entitled generation. It doesn't matter than it was "my" choice where to teach. Instead, the place "I" chose should give "me" the benefits of the place "I" didn't choose because "I'm" an awesome teacher and deserve it.

A prior poster provided the hard facts about how and how much charter schools get funded vs. DCPS. Damned the facts, let's unionize the teaching staff at charter schools, demand salaries and benefits beyond what their funding can support, drive them into the red, and cause them to be shuttered for financial failure.

Are there 1 or 2 or maybe 3 charter schools that are paying the top brass too much? Yes, and they should be corrected immediately.
Are the rest making the best use possible with inadequate funding? Probably.

To the contrary. Educators often form unions to band together to create a better environment for teaching and learning. It is a form of taking MORE responsibility for the students not less.

You couldn't be more wrong. Teachers want a union to get better pay, smaller class sizes, more time off, more training, better benefits, and more. Until teachers accept the unchangeable reality that per-pupil funding won't magically increase to cover those additional costs, they are tilting at windmills. Where should the dollars come from, absent increased funding -- rent, custodial services, security, technology, supplies, field trips, air conditioning, resource service providers, dedicated aides to meet IEP requirements?

Don't make the transparency argument either. Any teacher can look at the detailed financials of their school, publicly available, to see the details of revenue and expenses. Oh, that takes a bit of work. Let's form a union instead, pay union dues, let the union do the homework, and assume the union can improve our employment arrangements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to the entitled generation. It doesn't matter than it was "my" choice where to teach. Instead, the place "I" chose should give "me" the benefits of the place "I" didn't choose because "I'm" an awesome teacher and deserve it.

A prior poster provided the hard facts about how and how much charter schools get funded vs. DCPS. Damned the facts, let's unionize the teaching staff at charter schools, demand salaries and benefits beyond what their funding can support, drive them into the red, and cause them to be shuttered for financial failure.

Are there 1 or 2 or maybe 3 charter schools that are paying the top brass too much? Yes, and they should be corrected immediately.
Are the rest making the best use possible with inadequate funding? Probably.

To the contrary. Educators often form unions to band together to create a better environment for teaching and learning. It is a form of taking MORE responsibility for the students not less.

You couldn't be more wrong. Teachers want a union to get better pay, smaller class sizes, more time off, more training, better benefits, and more. Until teachers accept the unchangeable reality that per-pupil funding won't magically increase to cover those additional costs, they are tilting at windmills. Where should the dollars come from, absent increased funding -- rent, custodial services, security, technology, supplies, field trips, air conditioning, resource service providers, dedicated aides to meet IEP requirements?

Don't make the transparency argument either. Any teacher can look at the detailed financials of their school, publicly available, to see the details of revenue and expenses. Oh, that takes a bit of work. Let's form a union instead, pay union dues, let the union do the homework, and assume the union can improve our employment arrangements.

Actually, one of their stated concerns is that students with special needs ARE falling through the cracks.
Another is that the administration waited until after contracts were signed for a new school year to make significant and costly (to the staff) changes to their health insurance plan. Perhaps the insurance plan DID need to change, but there is no reason that staff shouldn't have been told that before committing to another year.
The Administration also had a policy of distributing bonuses to teachers, with no clear criteria for how it was determined who got them and who didn't. And then, this year they announced there would be no bonuses.
And finally, the Administration made a decision to replicate without the support of its teachers or current parents, all for a new building grant that was supposedly time-limited?

That kind of bait and switch and lack of transparency is corrosive in any organization in 2019. If MV were acting in good faith, perhaps the staff wouldn't have formed the union. But they have, and now the Administration has to deal with it.

As to the budget, there is no reason to assume that there is no fat in the MV's budget.

[Anonymous]

... Educators often form unions to band together to create a better environment for teaching and learning. It is a form of taking MORE responsibility for the students not less.
You couldn't be more wrong. Teachers want a union to get better pay, smaller class sizes, more time off, more training, better benefits, and more. Until teachers accept the unchangeable reality that per-pupil funding won't magically increase to cover those additional costs, they are tilting at windmills. Where should the dollars come from, absent increased funding -- rent, custodial services, security, technology, supplies, field trips, air conditioning, resource service providers, dedicated aides to meet IEP requirements?

Don't make the transparency argument either. Any teacher can look at the detailed financials of their school, publicly available, to see the details of revenue and expenses. Oh, that takes a bit of work. Let's form a union instead, pay union dues, let the union do the homework, and assume the union can improve our employment arrangements.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

As to the budget, there is no reason to assume that there is no fat in the MV's budget.

There's no need to assume anything. Just look at the 990's of any charter school and you can see firsthand the details of its revenues and expenses. You can't do that with a specific DCPS school expenses are buried in the aggregate DCPS budget. Want a union and all the supposed attendant benefits? Teach at a DCPS.