Election Day, 2014

Tomorrow is the day, and excuses won't cut it.  Vote!  If you don't, there will be no need to ask Wednesday for whom the bell tolls.  Just look in the mirror.

Governor:  Mark Shauer
U.S. Senate:  Gary Peters
Attorney General:  Mark Totten
Secretary of State:  Godfrey Dillard
State Senate:  Cathy Forbes
State House:  Collene Lamonte
MI Supreme Court:  Bernstein and Murphy (Part time-Thomas)
State Board of Ed:  Smith and Ulbrich
U of M Board of Regents:  Behm/White
MSU Board of Regents:  Perles and Owen
Wayne State Board of Regents:  Kelly and Thompson
Ballot Proposals 1 and 2: No

The Fires of the Righteous

           One of the most enduring memories I have of childhood is that of Buddhist monks setting themselves on fire to protest the Vietnam War.  My oldest brother spent a year there as a nineteen year old; barely in my teens myself, I was acutely aware of the war and its consequences.  In addition to the images of the Detroit riots and Dr. King’s murder, those black-and-white pictures from T.V. and magazines of flames devouring those robed figures imprinted themselves on my brain and have yet to disappear.     The sacrifice of those monks ultimately proved futile, of course.  The war dragged on until 1975, and the conviction and faith of everyone touched by Vietnam was left in pieces by its wake. 

            Such devotion to righteousness always ends in destruction it seems, and it doesn’t matter what era we’re talking about.  Think of the upheaval we’ve experienced in recent years at the hands of radical politicians who are more interested in fanning the flames than finding a way to extinguish them.  The devil is in the details, so it is especially troublesome that many of us helped elect those overseers of destruction, swayed by their promises to embrace a pragmatism we understand and respect.

            So let me be blunt.  If your plan is to go into the voting booth on November 4 and vote for any candidate with an ‘R’ beside his or her name, you’d be as well off to buy a gallon of gasoline and drive to Lansing with the purpose of setting yourself on fire on the capitol steps. Seriously.  If you think the last few years have been tough, consider what Rick Snyder and Jase Bolger will do knowing that Snyder won’t have to face the electorate again.  Your devotion to righteousness may very well cost you your home, your child’s college education, or your pension.  While you’re busy rationalizing your vote in protest of your low-life, food-stamp-collecting, pot-smoking neighbor, Snyder and Bolger will very quietly pass another bill attacking your livelihood, sponsored by those friendly folks at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

            Rick Snyder does not deserve to be re-elected.  It’s that simple.  A vote for Snyder is a vote contrary to your best interests, the interests of your friends, and the interests of your family.  A vote for Rick Snyder is an act of self-immolation.  Save that gallon of gas for 2016.

Seeking Higher Ground

            One of the most hurtful developments of the last few years has been the demonization of teachers, and the denigration of what teachers do by those seeking political advantage.  Most teachers care deeply about their students and their schools, but we’ve all been colored by the same broad brush:  teachers are lazy; teachers are overpaid; teachers are responsible for all of America’s problems.  It has been debilitating, yet somehow we’ve managed to stay faithful to our students and our profession.

            Fidelity doesn’t always mean agreement, however.  Sometimes it means having the courage to say ‘no’, and that was exactly the mentality the bargaining team assumed when we began discussing wage improvements earlier this spring.  We have a wage structure that is no longer sustainable under current fiscal realities.  The seniority system that wage structure is based on no longer exists, but that structure hasn’t been replaced with an alternative, and as a result, the loss of steps over the last three years has made life especially difficult for teachers at the bottom of the scale.  Some improvement in the district’s financial outlook occurred with the passage of the technology millage, but uncertainty is the plague of school budgeting.

            Changes to existing laws have occurred which we felt were to our advantage, namely the calculation of professional development hours.  School districts in Michigan are required to provide 1098 hours of instruction this year, but unlike previous years, professional development hours that could once be counted as instructional time can no longer be included in that calculation.  That meant that the level of professional development proposed by the district this year would require time added to the day in order to meet the 1098 requirement.  Knowing this, we determined that our best course of action in negotiating a wage increase was to link approval of the school calendar to discussions about compensation.  That has been our strategy throughout the summer as negotiations progressed.   And they have progressed.  Discussions have been open and respectful, and the message has been consistent:  the status quo is not acceptable.

            Necessity is a mother, however, and last Friday, faced with the need to provide parents and students with some kind of calendar to begin the year, we met with the superintendent in an effort to resolve the impasse.  We were prepared with at least two possible alternatives to the district’s proposed calendar, both of which would be problematic for planning purposes.  The first would have involved removing two half-days scheduled for first semester and moving them to second semester, while waiting to add the additional time to second semester as well.  The second involved removing several of the scheduled late starts.

            Neither of the alternatives we offered would further our goal of obtaining some relief for our cash-strapped teachers, however, and the longer we discussed the issues at hand, the more we came to realize the need to stay focused on that goal.  Had we pressed the issue, the perception would again be that we are adversarial.  We don’t care about Oakridge kids, we only care about ourselves.  As ludicrous as those accusations are, the public perception has been and continues to be that fidelity always means agreement, and that perception would win in the end.        

            So we’ve been asked once again to trust: to trust that the next couple of months will favor our cause; to trust that our efforts to maintain a positive and respectful approach to negotiations will prevail; to trust that all of the talk about how much we are respected will prove to be more than talk.  As your leadership team, we took a pretty significant risk, and one that may very well prove to have been foolhardy.  If that proves to be the case, our credibility will certainly take a hit, but not nearly as damaging a hit as that experienced by those whom we’ve been asked to trust.  

D-Day for Education

     This Friday, June 6, marks the 70^th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy to launch the liberation of western Europe in World War II.  The reason I mention it is because I’ve been reading Rick Atkinson’s history of that portion of the war, The Guns at Last Light, and am continually overwhelmed by the level of courage and fortitude it took to accomplish this invasion.  Casualties on June 6 alone totaled 12,000 dead, wounded, or missing.  LSTs approaching the beachheads witnessed wholesale slaughter as Nazi gun emplacements riddled the men leading the advance, and yet, the men on those landing craft stepped off the gates and rushed into the surf in spite of what it meant to them as individuals.  The Nazis had terrorized the free world for five long years, and Allied soldiers were willing to forfeit everything to change that reality.

     There are no modern day parallels to what those soldiers and sailors faced in June of 1944, but teachers are not oblivious to the costs of political terrorism.  Since the beginning of Mr. Bush’s second term, educators have been the lightning rod for any ill that can somehow be linked to the system of education in this country.  Since Rick Snyder’s election four years ago,  we’ve seen our standard of living decline, been subjected to assaults on our right to organize and bargain collectively, and fallen prey to evaluation processes that are so transparently arbitrary that they border on the obscene.  November 4, 2014 is D-Day for educators and public education in Michigan.  If the current imbalance of power in Lansing continues, it will be Katie bar the door for Rick Snyder and his pals in his second term. 

     The only question that remains is:  what are YOU going to do about it?  Will you head home on June 6 and bury your head in the sand until August wanes?  Ignore the fact that the only way change takes place is when we all collectively shout NO MORE, and rise up to resist?  There are many things you can do.  Commit to an hour a week for Colleen Lamonte.  Spend two hours of your week on an MEA phone bank.  Call your legislators.  Attend a community forum.  Sign a petition.  Show some fortitude and be courageous for your profession, for your students, and for your colleagues.  Instead of making excuses for why you aren’t involved, get involved.  If you don’t, there will be no one else to blame for what unfolds on November 5^th.  In spite of the personal sacrifice change will require, it’s time for each of us to step into the surf and face that entrenched enemy on the beachhead.  The cost of doing otherwise may be your job, your home, and possibly worse, your dignity and self-worth.

Highly Effective Nonsense

   I have a confession to make.  At the end of last school year, I was totally burned out and could think of nothing but getting as far away from Oakridge Public Schools as I could get.  I was sick to death of the politics and the gossip and administrators who all seemingly buy into the ridiculous notion that teachers are the cause of all that is wrong with American education.  I had decided to have the surgery I’d been putting off for too long, but more importantly, I made up my mind to address the source of my unhappiness.   I tuned out the 24/7 onslaught from the television and Internet and started each morning reading all things spiritual, went to Mass twice a week, and only went north of the Grand River when forced to do so.  For the first time in my career as a teacher, I dreaded the coming of August and thought longingly about retirement.    So I know very well and sympathize with those of us who try hard to insulate ourselves from the constant noise that surrounds us during the school year.  It’s distracting and too often hurtful, and saps energies intended for better use. 

   Unfortunately, that self-protective mode does little to address the onslaught that threatens our jobs and livelihood, and that onslaught persists.  For all Mr. Livezey’s claims to the contrary, the evaluation process at Oakridge is still a dog and pony show.  Every evaluation done at the secondary level last year was of questionable validity.  Teachers at the middle school evaluated themselves, admittedly a more prudent and admirable approach than at the high school, though that approach would hardly pass an objectivity test.  At the high school, evaluations from the previous year, by a previous administrator, formed the basis for the final evaluation of most of the teachers in an effort to meet the superintendent’s June 30 deadline.   And in one case, the evaluation was not used to address the teacher’s value as an educator, but as a disciplinary tool to satisfy the insecurities of an inexperienced administrator.

    Additionally, we spent hour upon hour last summer putting together a wage supposal that was both realistic, and would address the injustices of the last four years for our youngest teachers.  At the same time, we asked that the district allow the membership to opt for Messa ABC Plan 1 to help relieve some of the economic pressures created by the hard cap.  The first suggestion would have cost the district about $40,000, the second, nothing at all.  In those informal talks, we were informed that the board preferred to wait until this year’s audit is complete before committing to any salary improvements.  Well and good, but the insurance request would have no impact on the district’s finances!  Instead, we were informed that the only way the ABC plans would be considered was contingent upon our willingness to re-open the entire collective bargaining agreement and re-negotiate a contract we just signed last March.  Those “discussions” have made it clear to the bargaining team that Mr. Livezey is not just unwilling, but incapable of genuinely advocating for teachers with the school board, particularly if there is any chance the board will resist the effort.   His aversion to personal risk is almost pathological and gives the lie to his claims of concern for the plight of teachers and staff.

   Your building rep has probably already approached you with a PAC envelope and a plea this week.  Please don’t toss the envelope in the garbage and claim that politics doesn’t concern you.  Everything that we’re dealing with at the district level originated with the mindset in Lansing, and that mindset is continually working to find new ways to make your job more difficult.  If $5.00 is all you can afford, that’s great.  If you can afford $20, though, that would be fantastic.  Rick Snyder has deep pockets, and will throw money toward those who support him in an effort to bury those who oppose him.  Your interests, and the interests of your family and students, need to answer those deep pockets in kind.   Give whatever you can. Please.

Cautions and Reminders

        It has been said that everything you need to know to be successful in life is learned in the first five years:  kindness, consideration, compassion, and how to play well with others.  How soon we forget!  By the time we reach high school, we will have pretty much become the people we will always be, too often abandoning kindness and compassion for the sake of gossip, and principle in payment for the comfort we’ve come to expect and enjoy.  The point here is that there are wolves among us; people who apparently feel compelled to squeal on their colleagues for the slightest perceived indiscretion; tattletales who are still behaving like kindergarteners.  Fifty Oakridge teachers and administrators attended last month’s Capturing Kid’s Hearts training, and then returned to the district promptly having forgotten that the way you treat kids is an extension of how you are supposed to treat adults.

        This is, of course, exactly the kind of environment the evaluation process was designed to foster, and administrators are taking full advantage of that fact.  Too many of last spring’s final evaluations were done with a capriciousness that is breathtaking when you consider the anxiety it created among teachers.  Highly effective/effective/minimally effective.  What does any of that even mean?  Whatever an administrator determines it to mean, sadly enough.  With no concrete and reliable way to measure effectiveness, the sycophants and backstabbers rise to the occasion, and petty administrators with no real talent for anything but bullying are happy to accommodate them.

         The good news is that, in spite of every effort they’ve made to do so, Randy Richardville and Rick Snyder have been unsuccessful in their attempts to destroy the MEA.  Applications to withdraw from union membership are even lower than union officials anticipated, but that doesn’t mean House Republicans have stopped trying.  The latest union-busting bills devised by Richardville and company would privatize teachers, and you can bet there are plenty of private companies that will never be held accountable as you and I are chomping at the bit to see them passed.  For all their chirping about big government, Republicans are moving forward with a big government turnover of public education in this state that is downright evil.  A summary of the bills can be found here:  http://www.eclectablog.com/2012/11/michigan-republicans-move-to-privatize-public-education-under-the-guise-of-reform.html .  The fact that the bills were not passed last session makes them no less a threat, and you can bet Mr. Richardville is waiting for just the right moment to re-introduce new incarnations of them.

         The better news is that on Tuesday, kids will begin pouring into our classrooms and we will begin doing what we do best: building the very human relationships that make an education possible in the first place.  In spite of Michelle Rhee and Randy Richardville and Rick Snyder, the Smarter Balance Consortium and the MME, kids at Oakridge will begin that process of growth we as teachers are privileged to witness and be a part of each school year.  So be happy.  Remember that you are doing one of the most important jobs in the world.  Ignore the naysayers and the negativity, but be vigilant.  People in positions of authority are intent on solidifying their power and furthering their careers, and to deny that this is true only makes us more vulnerable.  Don’t access Facebook on school computers during your duty hours.  Turn off your cell phone!  Anyone who absolutely needs you while you are at work can do so without calling you during class.  Keep a parent contact log.  Assemble a portfolio that reflects your instruction.  At the end of the day, you are the best evaluator of your teaching, and when you know in your heart that you’ve given your all for the sake of your students, what more do you need to know?

May Update

As we near the end of another school year, it’s important that we reflect on where we are and what the future may entail:

1.)  It would be unfair not to acknowledge the recent positive change in the relationship between district leaders and the OEA.  We are all muddling through the legislative challenges handed to us by Governor Snyder and the Mackinac Center (a.k.a. the Michigan House of Representatives), and to everyone’s credit, doing so with patience and understanding.  We are the only Muskegon County district with a bargaining agreement in place for teachers beyond 2014.  That stability will be increasingly important as long as the leadership vacuum in Lansing on public education continues.

2)  Orchard View teachers recently approved a two year contract, taking them out to August of 2014, but because they did not ratify by March 27, right-to-work-for-less will be in force.  In addition, the 5% pay cut that was imposed upon them in February has been reduced, but will still amount to a 2% cut over all through 2013-2014.  Class sizes will increase contractually, and the district is dumping trimesters at OV High, which may lead to job losses. 

3)  Teacher evaluations and discipline continue to be sources of anxiety, and if you listen to the politicians bloviating about the subject in Lansing, that is perfectly understandable.  However, your union leadership has had no indication from the superintendent that teacher evaluations are going to suddenly transform into attempts to devalue or undervalue teachers.  In fact, building principals are making every effort to engage teachers to discuss the evaluation process and lessen anxiety levels. 

4)  In regard to discipline, there have been several rounds of discussion about what constitutes a ‘verbal’ warning.  Long-standing labor practice has recognized that a progression of disciplinary actions have to take place before an employee is dismissed for just cause.  The first step in that process is a verbal warning, but that verbal warning, in spite of its title, needs to be documented, and the affected employee made aware of the fact that formal disciplinary action has been taken.  That verbal warning would traditionally be entered in the employee’s personnel file, and under Federal law, accompanied by the employee’s rebuttal of the action if he or she chose to provide a response.  The most important point here is this:  an administrator who claims that you have been given a verbal warning without providing some form of documentation of that action needs to be challenged.  The OEA considers any disciplinary action taken against teachers a serious matter, and will legally challenge any effort to discipline or dismiss an educator when a reasonable chain of evidence regarding that educator has not been established.

5)  As you know, but may have forgotten, the MAISD is in the process of gathering signatures to place a technology enhancement millage request before voters in a special election slated for September 24, 2013.  It really is in our best interest to assist in that petition drive.  Given the instability of funding at the state level, and the ongoing cost of maintaining a district’s technology infrastructure, any future shortfall might be leveraged against teachers to demand concessions in pay and benefits.  It’s only going to take 3000 signatures by June 30 to get the initiative on the ballot, and if every Oakridge teacher supplies two, we’ll have done our share.  Please see your building rep for petitions and instruction on how to successfully gather signatures.