This is going to work well. Because you want to have things exactly your way however it is and don’t get it you are going to cause the cancellation of various after school activities that specifically help students to expand their horizons and help them move forward in life. That’s interesting that in one hand the unions says we want appreciation but then they are going to take an action that while legal goes against the very thing they say they don’t want to do. Folks wonder why i don’t like modern unions…it’s right here in plain view in our county. The commissioners next time need to let the teachers strike then use replacements until the teachers themselves start loosing their own incomes(strike funds last maybe two weeks). The teachers will realize they union isn’t helping them at all…at least the smart ones will.
Frederick County teachers are upset with budget decisions made by the Board of Education, and beginning March 30 will “work to the contract,” according to Frederick County Teachers Association president Gary Brennan.Theyll put in 100 percent during their seven-and-a-half hour workday to teach and grade papers, but theyll take a duty-free lunch, as the contract stipulates, he said.Once their workday is up, teachers will go home to their families, leaving any papers left to be graded at school, since they are supposed to have time during the school day for grading, according to Brennan.Brennan said the action centers around budget decisions made at the Feb. 22 board meeting where the board decided to put in a request for extra funding from county commissioners while balancing the budget by slashing the proposed salary resource pool for employee raises in half.The budget also includes possible furlough days dependent upon negotiations and the reversal of a 1.5 percent salary adjustment in fiscal 2012, which was a one-time stipend.”We feel that both the BoE and the county commissioners have not shown the commitment to public education that employees have,” Brennan said.The decision to implement a work-to-rule action was made unanimously March 8 by the unions representative assembly, which includes members from every school, according to Brennan.The teachers association is asking all of its nearly 2,800 members to participate in the upcoming work-to-rule. Teachers are going to work to the spirit and letter of their contract, Brennan said.The expectation during the action is that teachers will perform up to contract expectations, but it may take longer to assess student work and to get back to parents, as teachers will have to prioritize their core functions, he said.”What they really want from the community and the elected officials is appreciation,” he said.Ballenger Creek Elementary School will cancel its annual talent show because teachers volunteered their time for the event and were not compensated, according to a letter sent home to parents Friday.Theres probably a laundry list of similar situations in the county where after-school programs will need to be canceled, Brennan said.He said this action is “horribly negative,” but teachers have come to be taken for granted.”Its not a positive thing, but what I hope comes from it is a recognition of how much educators in this county do to see children succeed,” he said.
via Teachers: We wont work off the clock – The Frederick News-Post Online.