Our district threw out our contract on June 30; we are in a stalemate

[proud2BlibKansan]

Here is a summary of what the district is proposing and the union is fighting:

1. No more seniority and the district can transfer any of us at will anytime.

2. Merit pay.

3. Deny us the right to send students to the office for disciplinary reasons.

4. Decrease planning time and tell us how we may (or may not) use it.

5. A "management rights clause" that is about control of employees, not educating kids.

6. Make our contract school board policy, which means no negotiation and it can be changed anytime.

And the little bit of press we have received:

http://www.kctv5.com/news/16715861/detail.html

http://www.kmbc.com/news/16713075/detail.html

[hobbit709]

1. You're not teachers, you're cogs in the machine

and you better learn to like it. The corporate asshole attitude is taking over everything.

[midnight]

2. Those are strange issues that are being inforced and or

denied. Let us know how this turns out.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Will do !!

[dsc]

3. I wish you the best

I know what it is like to live under that sort of system and hope you win.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Thanks dsc

It's been a stressful summer.

[Omaha Steve]

6. K&R!

This is so common. We need a Dem in the White House to turn the tide.

[John Q. Citizen]

10. I heard on NPR this morning that both Obama and McCain endorse merit pay. WTF?

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Yes Obama supports merit pay

and WTF is right.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. I hear ya Steve.

I appreciate your support. It means a lot.

[Reader Rabbit]

7. Holy crap!

Your list looks as if they figured out every way to make teachers' jobs more difficult and educating students nearly impossible and put them into their proposal! I hope you have a strong union.

Did the contract expire, or did they toss it prematurely? If the latter, is there any legal recourse?

Edited to say: I'm happy to be your fifth rec!

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. District claims a new state law made the contract expire June 30

Union claims contract was for 3 years and began in Nov 05 so it shouldn't be expired yet. Lawyers are still arguing about that.

We do have federal mediators here now and national AFT adopted a resolution at their convention last week to support us until we have a contract.

Union isn't as strong as it used to be. But this contract nonsense has upset a lot of teachers so hopefully union membership will grow.

[mopinko]

8. heard mc cain bashing teachers unions yesterday.

oy vey. what assholes. well, your situation is sure a case study in what they want as soon as they can smother the unions. and it ain't straight a's.

[Tesla]

9. Scary stuff!!

Hope you guys get your voices heard!

[John Q. Citizen]

11. Maybe it's time to go on strike. What are they thinking anyway?

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Our district

is very dysfunctional. Has been for years. There were two strikes back in the 70s. I hope we can avoid that but I think most teachers will walk if they box us into a corner.

[Whoa_Nelly]

15. How involved is the NEA in all this?

And the KNEA?

Will be looking for more posts from you about this.

:hi:

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. We are AFT

It's KCMO.

[John Q. Citizen]

17. Well I hope they come to their senses. Why anyone (them, you, the public, the students) needs that

crap is a mystery to me.

[Generic Other]

18. No sending a student to the principal's office????

What the hell is that office for? Is the principal now gonna be the janitor?

Seems like the inmates are in charge of the asylum here.

[LWolf]

19. I hope to god your union is able to fight these things successfully.

If not, we'll see that ABUSE spread.

We were in a stalemate when we left for the summer. I've since received an email saying that negotiations were "successfully" concluded, with no info yet on just what changes will be made.

I don't remember seeing ANYTHING like your list on our "table," though.

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. Update: payroll issue this week

We get paid on the 15th and 30th of every month. For the first time in all the years I have worked for this district, they had some kind of problem and the teachers were not paid on the 15th. Most didn't get paid till the 16th.

Administrators were paid, no problem.

Here is a news article http://www.kmbc.com/news/16905667/detail.html

[Catshrink]

21. Unbelievable.

They are trying to break the union and get everyone to quit. It's part of the conservative plan to destroy public education. Yeah, I'm a cynic.

Our district just outlawed coffeemakers and microwaves in our workrooms to save money on utilities. What a joke.

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. Yes the district's attorney who leads the negotiation team

told everyone at the first session back in Feb that he wanted to break our union.

We are supposedly not supposed to have coffeemakers either but I kept mine. I also have a little fridge. I guess I am waiting until they say something. :)