Negotiations May 23, 2011

HI,

UGLY! and it is only going to get uglier. Here is what we learned today - the district offered us no step next year but one the year after. It offered no salary increase in the next two years. It offered a cap on insurance with what they pay now - which means no increase even though the costs are going up and lastly they want to be able to cut 15 days from our contract without talking with us about it if they need to save money. YES, I WOULD SAY THAT WAS AS BAD AS IT COULD BE - besides cutting about 20 people last Friday.

The district is playing hard ball - Dusty would even say they are being evil. The district has cut more teachers than they said they would, have not cut anything else so far, and want teachers to pay for what the voters do not want to pay for. The big question is why do the people who care most about kids have to pay for them while the people who have kids in our schools do not want to pay for them - at least not a majority of them. Time has come for teachers to quit being the whipping boy for the voters, and everyone else. We took our cuts last year - how many more years will we have to take cuts?

Ok, enough ranting - but I will tell you it was difficult to remain composed when you have people look at you and say work harder, lose benefits and God only knows when you will ever get a raise again, even though everything costs more. I know people have lost jobs and that is a terrible thing so I don't want to whine too much but on the other hand, the people who do have jobs need to be able to keep their houses and cars and not have to work a second job.

One of my big worries is that we have people trying to get others to cut days and save jobs. I think that is what the district is hoping for. I think they want us to beat each other up and give in to their demands and give up the power we have over our contract. Lets be real - the 9 teachers cut are not coming back no matter what. They are gone. The legislature is not giving us any more money in the near future - so if you open the contract expect to always lose days. It is a simple way for the district to balance the budget. So you still want to open the contract - well what are the guarnatees that the district will bring back teachers? How many will be brought back? Oh, and guess what - next year they need another 1.5 million in cuts. So that means we will need to cut even more days and benefits and pay. DO NOT GO DOWN THE ROAD OF GIVING IN SO QUICKLY! Remember, negotiations is all a game of start high and then get to where you really want to be.

If you have questions or concerns - talk to someone on the negotiation team. Do not use district email to show we are not unified. It does not help our position. You can always call me - you may not always like my answer, but we can at least talk.

Hang in there,

Keith