It looks like there could be a delay in the start of Seattle Public Schools.?We received this email from the district:
Families,The Seattle Education Association (SEA), which represents teachers, rejected the district’s latest contract proposal. They plan to meet again on September 3 to vote on whatever the proposal is at that time. With the start of school on September 4, we are encouraging families to develop back up plans should Seattle Public Schools not open on time. We realize the impact a labor strike would have on our families. We are working with child care providers and the City of Seattle to develop options for your students in the event school is not in session on September 4. Those resources, along with other information, will be posted tomorrow at www.seattleschools.org. We will send you additional messages as new information is available. Again, we are working to reach an agreement with teachers, but it is possible that school will not start on September 4. Please visit www.seattleschools.org for additional information.Thank you for your patience and support during this time.Seattle Public Schools Office of Public Affairs
?Extended summer vacation, or childcare nightmare?? One parent writes:
I doubt there will be a strike.? But if there is, then my work life will be extremely disrupted for the days it lasts.? (As a single parent who receives no child support, I also can’t afford to find and pay for childcare for strike days.? My kiddo will end up coming to work with me, which is definitely problematic.)? In turn, the school year will be extended – complicating childcare next summer.? I will feel no compunction about disrupting the district’s high-attendance goals, and the teachers’ workdays, by scheduling a family vacation during any school-year “extensions”. I support the teachers’ goals to limit the caseload for special-ed staff, but fighting for a 7.5 hour workday when middle-school teachers at the same salary work 8.0?? Rubbish.
Another parent writes:
I believe teachers need to be paid what they deserve and that they should be fairly evaluated.? I wish they could have figured this before the start of the school year, but I guess I understand the timing.? If there’s a strike, we will support the teachers, and enjoy our extra time together before school starts.
What are your thoughts? Please email us at tips@magnoliavoice.com.
Wish I could find a job with a 7.5 hour workday. You know, instead of 10+ hours that a lot of employers require for a salary.
You can, snark. But be prepared for 50+ hour weeks like any other job, plus evenings and weekends. And let’s add in continued college credits (5-10 a year) and classes (on your own time and dime). Also, you really can’t call in sick, come in late or leave early if you’re not feeling well, have a sick kid, etc. and forget any other appointment (dentist, doctor, car repair, etc) between 7 am and 4:30 pm. on weekdays. No dashing off to take care of personal business. Ever. This and the guiding the future of America’s young minds and hearts can all be yours. Go for it!
My children’s SPS teachers left them to work independently for large chunks of the day. If they weren’t teaching or using that for prep time, I guess they were on Facebook.
That’s been my experience too, K-4: classroom teachers have free time during the day while their students are in gym, at recess, at lunch, at art, at recess again. It’s not like any one teacher actually teaches through the entirety of the 6.5 hour school day. I’m not saying they are all on Facebook during this non teaching time, but the argument that they somehow work a full workday and then have hours of prep is erroneous.
Also, what does Teacher above mean about teachers never being able to do personal business during the workday? Seems like they have ten weeks of summer vacation, two weeks of winter vacation, one week of midwinter break AND one week of spring break to do that! Hint: I work full-time, 8 hours and usually more, during those 14 weeks.
Different people choose different work schedules and different work pressures. Teachers have career challenges, absolutely, but they also have perks like a workday ending at 3:30 (they don’t have to ave after school childcare for their own kids), 14 weeks off (exactly matching their kids’ days off – again no childcare cost), union benefits. And these pros and cons are well-known before they enter the profession. They get what they set out to get, career-wise.
What do you feel about the condition of teachers having students of various levels of English comprehension all bundled together in their classes, and the pressure to produce test results as a measure of their worth? I understand your inferral that teachers pick willingly the field they are in…but can you see how a teacher is expected to produce a result with a large class of students who often don’t come from a similar background or who have vastly unsimilar language skills? All I could see were teachers dealing with “overwhelm”. As for spring break, etc…how does that help them when their own child is ill in Februrary, and your boss might let you go home early….but they cannot? Perhaps it is better in Magnolia, but if it were, then the students in Magnolia would place better in state-wide testing, which they don’t. Might I have your input on this? What art? Which schools are your referring to?
If you think it’s such an awesome deal, maybe you should stop snarking and become a teacher instead?
I mentored in the Seattle public schools for about 6 months and you should try it for a week. You’d be astonished. The poster below “Board Certified Teacher” has it right. Incredibly long hours, no way to get anything done during the day like the rest of the work world can in an emergency, and a union that puts them in a spot like this, where parents wind up being frustrated “I will book my vacation during the last two weeks of school, etc”. That plays well on the retribution front…but when kids have to take SATs and other tests at the high school level the kids themselves know that missing school matters. I helped teach the teachers at Olympic Elementary my specialty and to offer that specialty to their classes, something they wanted to do so much they were willing to pay for all the supplies out of their own pockets. I paid for the supplies and taught the kids directly. I feel great empathy for the teachers, and we all know that with the large classes they can never teach to a level of the schools on the Eastside, nor can our kids here compete well for UW. Its fine to be snarky, but read up on the stuff you look down your nose at, otherwise you just seem kind of uneducated on things rather than sophisticated in your derision.
7.5 hours is just the teaching of the classes. Prep and grading is often another 2-3 hours. Teachers have plenty of 10 hour days, and many spend their whole weekends grading as well.
As for the 7.5 vs 8 for elementary vs. secondary: secondary teachers have 60 minutes of prep per each day, the rest of the time they are teaching. Elementary teachers have 30 minutes. The reason teaching are unhappy with extending the day by 30 minutes is that it is specified as “principal lead time,” which could mean they also have a 30 minute meeting every day. It is not time that would go into 1. instruction or 2. planning both of which teachers might support.
“7.5 hours is just the teaching of the classes”. Where do you get this???
No public school here has a 7.5 hour day for students. Blaine is 9:20-3:35 (6 1/4 hours) and Lawton is 8:20-2:50 (6 1/2 hours). So elementary teachers already are paid for a daily hour or more of prep time.
Thank you. I sure get tired of hearing that there’s “no time for music class” and “no time for a world language class” (etc.) when the SPS elementary school days are at least a full hour shorter than private schools.
By the way, the West Seattle blog article on this subject (http://westseattleblog.com/2013/08/seattle-public-schools-parents-warned-school-might-be-delayed) included this comment by an SPS teacher:
“This is not about class size. This district already took that off the table.
This is not really about pay. The district is offering 2% raises over each of the next two years. The SEA is holding out for 2.5%.
This is about something truly asinine. In the 1970?s the district saved money by reducing the elementary teachers? work day to 7.0 hours. Secondary teachers work 7.5 hours. We get paid the same amount of money. The district is asking elementary teachers to start working 7.5 hour days. They want us to tag on a extra half hour to the day for collaboration time. What is wrong with that? Nothing.
I went to the meeting yesterday and had to leave early. I gave in my paper ballot and was asked by the person receiving it: are you sure you want to vote that way? Do you know what you are accepting?
I am so sorry to all of the SPS parents out there. I?m frustrated as a teacher that I am forced to be a part of the SEA. It is a ridiculous excuse for a union.”
I am so happy to hear a teacher say this! Good for you for not just going along, Too bad more teachers don’t do the same!