Almost a full week has gone by

Things are getting hectic again at school, hence no blogging. I barely get on to even comment on my friend's blogs. I can't access blogger from school, which is probably a good thing, but after being at school for 10-12 hours every day, I don't have much energy left other that to walk the dog and pass out at 9:30 in the middle of Law and Order.

My student teacher started her takeover last week, and my first year teacher (whom I'm "mentoring") and I have a huge project due on Thursday this week. That, plus meetings with, shall we say, challenging parents , and SST and IEP (Student Study Teams and Individual Education Plan) meetings as well. Grading papers? Essays? What are you talking about? Who has time? Oh yeah, that's what the weekends are for.


Have I told you that our district has seen fit to increase our hours but not our pay? Yep. Until November 16th they actually refused to even discuss salary with us. See, every year the state decides on what the cost of living increase will be. This year it was 4%. Every district in California gets this increase, called COLA (Cost of Living allotment). Then, the district decides how to disperse that COLA funding. Oh, they got it in July.

So, When they finally came to the table, in the middle of November, after we'd been working two and a half months, they basically said,

"Sorry, we can't offer you anything. Times are hard. We know, we started taking $105 out of your paycheck every month this year to help cover health care costs. We had to, don't you see? We know, you're all making actually less money than last year because of this, but what can we do? You are the easiest cut to make. COLA? it's 4% yes, but we have increased expenditures.

Oh, by the way, we also propose changing your contract language. Yes, we want to add a half hour to your required daily time at school. We don't want anyone running off two minutes after school gets out, you might not get your work done. Oh, also? We want you to work an extra six adjunct hours a year. Come on, it's just six more hours. You know, like a week or two of lunch duty or chaperoning a dance... stop whining. Other people have it worse than you.

Something else too... we want all junior high school teachers to have parent conferences. You know, like the elementary teachers do. Oh, we know elementary only have 18-22 students, and you all have 135-156 students, but we think you should do it. You know, before school, after school, on your prep period?

The last thing we'd like to add is another Back-to-School night in the Spring. Right now you are only required to be at one night time school event, so we need to change that too.

Be happy you get to live in Santa Barbara. Oh wait, I forgot, 30% of you don't live here because it's so expensive. Okay, be happy you get to work here. Remember, there's always some young pup ready to take your place if you don't like it. And besides, we don't have to pay them as much.

When I say that teachers don't get respect, this is what I'm talking about. It's not the general public's attitude, it's our districts' administration. It is now December, and yet again, we have to go to the board meetings, speak and plead our case, and probably go back to picketing in front of our schools every morning. This is just to get a cost of living increase that is lower than the state average. A cost of living increase that the state sent our district.

We don't get raises for a good job, we don't produce widgets or have sales quotas. I don't believe in paying teachers more when their students have higher test scores. The only way we can break even is to get the pittance of COLA. Which, every year, we have to fight tooth and nail just to get part of. Over the last three years, our district has only passed on 25% of the COLA funds to the teachers. So every year, the cost of living goes up, and teachers' standard of living goes down.

Now, I love everything else about my job. I know what I do makes a difference. I still do it, even though I make less money now than I did last year. I'm a good teacher, and I help my students become learners and critical thinkers, in spite of the emphasis on standardized testing. I don't want a reward for that.

What I would like however, is a district that doesn't force it's teachers to make a stink just to get what is due.


(p.s. I haven't forgotten about Henrietta the Cheapskate. I'll get to the rest of it soon.)