May 17, 2012
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The Daily News
1 I keep walking into rooms and forgetting why.
2 I realize most people would say, “That’s because you’re old!”
3 My answer to that is I’ve been doing it since I was around twelve.
4 Nobody listens to that one except twelve-year olds.
5 Well, nobody’s perfect. I just dislike how I have perfected imperfection.
6 I went to a meeting union meeting last night and tried to take minutes.
7 Midway through I realized I couldn’t keep up. These people are excellent at moving a meeting along at a rapid pace.
8 This was a meeting where some union legends came in to honor one another.
9 I knew and have worked with all of these wonderful people.
10 That much I understood. Standing ovations for people who fought huge battles to ensure that students were the top priority of the schools.
11 I don’t wish to name names, because a) I’m sure to leave somebody out, b) a lot of my readers wouldn’t know these people, and c) I can’t remember all their names.
12 But one lady who deserves mention is Cathy Giamonna, a legend both as teacher, mentor, teacher of teachers, and union goddess.
13 What she said was something everyone should know about our school and district: she said that the word “contract” should be removed from the lexicon if our students and parents are our focus, and that we should substitute the word “covenant.”
14 Both sides need to realize that for everything to stay afloat, that they need to compromise, rather than argue.
15 Unions are no longer the tough-guy Longshoremen of yesteryear. My good friend John Arnolfo taught me that years ago with Local 468. He was president of that union, and he managed to save that union and help it grow. It is now under the umbrella of the Teamsters, giving them much more clout, and protecting many workers’ jobs.
16 The public has a rather twisted view of unions, and of management in many cases. Public education in particular is filled with enormously important issues, and since all of it is funded with public funds, the issues must be negotiated carefully in order to benefit the public, the parents, the schools, and the students.
17 So Cathy’s declaration of a contract as a “covenant” simply means that we are all in this together, and we have a really important and delicate relationship with the people who handle the dwindling funds. Nobody wins when war is declared, just like real wars. Disagreements can happen, but there has to be a sense of trust.
18 It is scary times. We still have to fight hard not to give things up. The District has to fight hard to be sure we are not exaggerating our needs. Both play the game. Both know the silliness sometimes of negotiations, and keeping things from each other.
19 And both sides never want a strike.
20 While trying to take minutes, I got lost, which in a way is a good thing, because these guys know so well how to get things done that they don’t waste time on debates and stalling out issues.
21 They go by Robert’s Rules of Order, and it works.
22 Not everybody is happy at the end of the meeting, because people are passionate and have their opinions often outvoted.
23 But the fact that we all are passionate about things, and that we all believe that what’s good for the students and parents should come first makes it all pretty genuine.
24 Changes will have to be made, especially with the issue of furlough days. A shortened school year makes everything in the Spring move faster, and it is especially difficult on seniors, because school events start crashing in on each other. AP testing runs into finals, for example. Prom comes in earlier of later. Traditional school events like FANTASTICS and BATTLE begin crashing into sports finals, musicals, and other activities.
25 My seniors look like they want to cry or die every single day this week. It is really tough on them. I see it in their eyes, and in their puffy, exhausted faces. This is their future everyone is playing with.
26 Schools are in great pain these days, because we have tried to accommodate no raising of taxes for years. We haven’t had a raise since 2002.
27 Governor Brown has drawn a line in the sand. He is bold enough to see the state of education, and he has told the taxpayers that it is time to raise taxes for education.
28 Here’s an example of why: our school has over 2600 students. We have TWO counselors, where we used to have five. That’s a ridiculous student/counselor ratio.
29 Nobody knows what is going to happen to the librarians next year.
30 Support staff is getting dumped on at an alarming rate.
31 Young teachers don’t know from one year to the next what might happen.
32 Old teachers are frightened of trying to retire, yet sit watching as their retirement benefits might be ripped away from them.
33 Sports are constantly targeted, and expectd somehow to adapt to shorter and shorter school years.
34 And Brown has now stood up and said, “Look, California. We either fix this, or say good-bye to education in California. It is THAT critical.”
35 A gamble? Special education is in severe trouble. So is this a gamble?
37 Yes, and a really scary one.
38 Because if we don’t get a tax hike, it is going to be earth shaking.
39 I have a lot of hope that the taxpayers see this. We aren’t exaggerating. We have reached critical mass.
40 And we do have pretty competent people holding it all together on both sides of the table.
41 I also think that at some point, we have to support younger teachers who could only be the best because they are passionate enough to still want to teach despite all of this. We have a wonderful batch of younger teachers with stars in their eyes and tremendous heart and hope for where they can take students. They are much better trained and ready than we ever were.
42 That’s where education in California is as of this day.
43 You should all give it some thought.
44 I’m not exaggerating.
45 Give it some hard thought. That boushit about “We give them all this money and they just waste it!” is a myth, and only an idiot would believe that.
46 When Cathy Giamonna called a contract a “covenant” I felt a spiritual connection with all of the hard-working people in education. So many good people, from the classified staff to the teachers on the front lines, and to the people at the very top, we all work hard to keep this good ship afloat, and we are now all standing together in hopes that people will finally listen.
47 This old brown shoe is exhausted, and needs a bit more sleep, but before he goes off, he wants you to think about today’s DN.
48 I’m bringing Simon and Garfunkel to my students today. I will sing “America” to them, live. Tomorrow we are having a student poetry reading, complete with coffee- house flow, food, sunglasses, bongos, and a lot of love for our seniors.
49 That’s who wrote this today. That’s what thousands educators do, despite all. They work hard and put their hearts and souls into helping young people grow and mature. It is a very difficult job, and we all do it with smiles and laughs. It’s what gets us by.
50 Give us all some thought today. It is scary times. That is no lie.
51 Thanks for listening.
52 Peace.
~H~
