Thursday, Feb. 05, 2004

Layoffs Loom, posted at 2:14 p.m.

The mood here is so scary right now. The Union votes tomorrow morning whether to accept furlows, pay cuts, layoffs, or "none of the above." If the Union picks the latter, the school head chief is going to go to the school board and tell them the teachers have failed to compromised, and that the layoffs will occur.

She's threatening 1200 of them. I've heard as much as 1600. I'm as good as gone if layoffs occur. Apparently the central office does not have my teacher certification on file, and, while a 2nd replacement is on the way (they've lost it twice), I'm still on uncertified on paper.

Luckily, this is a problem that many of my colleagues have with the central office - lost documents, mismanagement. But there doesn't appear to be any safety in numbers, with hundreds of layoffs occurring next week.

That is, of course, unless the union agrees to pay furlows. I will be voting for them. I don't want to see myself or anyone else get pay furlows. It sucks that this money mismanagement is going on the backs of the teachers, but no more teachers should lose their jobs and no more students should be affected.

I'm flabbergasted that this is occurring in public education right now and that no one seems to care. Legislators? Presidential candidates? Where is your help?

There is an emergency faculty meeting after school today. More news during that, I'm sure.

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