Monday, October 4, 2010

Thoughts from your bargaining team

After we recieved to proposal on 9/30 from the district we decided to write down what was going through our minds hers are some of those thoughts;
“I feel that the offer was a slap in the face because the district proposed the same thing they proposed in August.”
“Same broken record getting to be the same broken school district.”
“The last district proposal is very disappointing. This bargain has been disappointing from the first proposal the district provided.”
“It feels like administrators don’t care about our students and they certainly don’t respect or value our support staff”
“We have never seen any administrators in any building shadowing any SESPA member that are up for cuts in days, to see the workloads we all have.”
“ I am sad and very disappointed that the district team refuses to look our team in the face and bargain together as bargaining is intended. Is it that you are ashamed of your words?”

“We expect our students to face their problems and deal directly with the people they have a problem with..We teach them to ‘use their words’ Why can’t the district bargain face to face?”
“To say the cuts are not about the money is absolutely unthinkable, irresponsible and disrespectful. It is like a parent telling a kid when the child asks why a parent has done something and the parent says “because I can” That is what this feels like to me”
“I felt empty! Disrespected. Why are we all here? FOR THE CHILDREN. Why does the school board only respect the administration? What happened to the community and the needs of the children of this community?”
“It seems that the district should spend a little of the time they have used in exploiting our contract to find ways to share in the success of the budget and fiscal responsibility. The staff and students continue to show decline in moral and in testing. As class loads rise and help declines. We as SESPA members know we are not teachers but we are educators. The mission is to prepare students for success not to just to create a ‘for profit’ business model”
“After the last offer I have never felt so disrespected in my professional life!”
“The work I do with students is not valued by the district. I do make a difference in the student’s lives”
“The district is not willing to sit face to face and have difficult conversations. Are they afraid or ashamed of themselves?”
“The last offer from the district made me feel that the district does not respect this bargaining team or the members of this union!”
“The district team has not been willing to meet with us face to face since June 30th. The sessions since then have unproductive. I feel less valued with each session.”

“I feel that the SESPA bargaining team has been bargaining in good faith, making changes with each proposal. I am having a very hard time understanding why the district continues to stay firm with their proposals of cuts and no consideration for any kind of money item compensation. This feels like a tactic to wear down our team. And break us, to give into everything district wants. It also feels like we are bargaining with one person rather than a team. I truly believe we could have bargained together and come up with solutions and a fair agreement.”
“These are difficult discussions , but unless you have them, you can’t get to a good end result”
“I am too depressed to write down my feelings. But I’m going to keep fighting the good fight because our members are human beings….we can’t present a contract proposal that degrades us.”
SESPA members feel like they deserve a RESPECTFUL contract. Why doesn’t the District think the same?

1 comment:

  1. The above is so true and so many of us feel all those feelings. We have such high standards for ourselves and work to give every student the best.

    It is impossible to consider that administration is valuing anything except the almighty dollar and that they believe in bullying their "working poor" SESPA employees. I wonder why the district administration is unable to speak directly with our bargaining team--could it be that they are simply afraid to face the truth and honesty of our members? There is no need to hide behind a mediator.

    Shame on you Shoreline School District Administration and Shoreline School Board. Step up and behave like a responsible and honest group of adults.

    I am proud of the actions of SESPA members and certainly proud of our bargaining team. We will STAND STRONG, really!
    Nancy Passe
    Echo Lake

    ReplyDelete