Reply to How does this end?

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "How does this end?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The only hope I have is that FCPS will finally pass a collective bargaining agreement.  Teachers are the experts on what teachers need and don’t need.  I’m sick of the entire profession being controlled by people who have never spent time in a classroom professionally and have NO idea.

With power, teachers can insist on the class sizes, planning time, staffing ratios, and compensation that our community needs in order to strengthen our entire public education system and make the teaching profession more attractive to retain existing good teachers and recruit new teachers.

Teachers know what our classrooms need.  We need the power to actually do what we know the KIDS need.  Please help us get that power by letting your school board know that you support collective bargaining!!![/quote]

What do teachers plan to ask for? Are they expecting double digit raises even though there is no money? I don’t understand how collective bargaining helps. I’m sure it will happen since the board is all democrats but, as a parent, all I think is there will be strikes and more closed schools like what’s happened in other districts with unions.[/quote]

There IS money.  And we are choosing to spend it on things like Tutor.com, ST Math, the boondoggle of Schoology, layer upon layer upon layer of bureaucracy, and all kinds of things that do not directly benefit students…and in many cases detract from student learning.

Having been at negotiating meetings in another state, I can say that a seat at the table would have gotten us a saner school calendar with fewer random PD days strewn about the place, interrupting routine.  More teacher workdays at the end of the quarter, with teacher-directed work time and predicable schedule to allow for family travel or child care programs like 2-day camps adjacent to the weekend.

That budget-neutral change alone would have had a huge impact on instruction for me this fall.  It’s been nearly impossible to re-establish routine with so many missed instructional days scattered all over October and November.

It’s not all about money in teacher pockets but yes, that’s part of it.  Fairfax County voters and cowardly elected officials have repeatedly chosen to buckle and dime our school system rather than finding teacher compensation adequately.  Things like biting down the meals tax which would have had very little impact on lost families but could have had a huge positive impact on schools.  I believe our community in general understands the value of good teachers and would support budgets that prioritize teachers.  But teachers have had little power to effect this change.[/quote]

So you want to get rid of the religious holidays?[/quote]

DP. ES Teacher
Yes.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics