While I'm sad to lose this institution we were lucky to have it for 46 years. It's understandable that Carol would be ready for a new adventure since Ed passed eight years ago.

Effective protest is disruptive. Period.

To teach kids otherwise is misleading, a betrayal of history.

I get that no one wants kids being bullied if, say, their parent is a scab. Kids should be taught that some things are worth getting angry about. I don't expect asmin to praise strikers, but they make it seem like protest should be polite or it's dangerous and scary. Not how history works!

Interesting that so much of the admin's messaging re: #teacherStrike is that lunch will be served.

Maybe just so parents know whether to pack a lunch? But I suspect it's because so many children rely on free lunch program as their main meal of the day.

@futbolfem.bsky.social

My 200 students per class is a guess based on the disclosure of how many scabs they are hiring. And based on Hercules Middle, the school where I know teachers. Just to be clear. How it shakes out, we'll see!

#strike #teacherstrike #union #UTRstrong

And next time admin complains that they don't have money for teachers, remember that 12% of their budget goes to consultants, which is 2-3 times the amount of other schools in the region.

They have the money, they just want to spend it on the revolving door for their corporate friends.

#UTRStrong

So even talk about salaries isn't really about teachers wanting a cushier lifestyle. It's about them seeing "emergency staffing" conditions go on for years. Kids not having a qualified teacher all year, teachers being forced to sub in the planning period.

bit.ly/48l5228

Remember they have all summer to fill these roles, yet teachers often don't even find out what grade they are teaching until the week before school starts. Imagine having 3 months to write a new curriculum but instead they force you to do it in one week.

More on teacher vacancies: bit.ly/48AdhYw

Superintendent Cotton: "A strike takes teachers out of classrooms, harms relationships, and can make it harder to keep strong educators."

A strike is a last resort, but admin offers no solutions. The school year started wi/148 vacancies.
richmondpulse.org/2022/08/25/s...

Those are real situations my teacher friends have mentioned in passing. A 3% raise does not make handling that any better. Nor are these teachers trained to handle special needs.

Ironically, the email complains a strike "it will interrupt essential services for students with special needs."

Not only do WCCUSD have bigger class sizes, the current trend is to get rid of most special ed teachers and push special needs kids into a regular class. Teaching 35 kids is hard enough, now imagine 1 hides in a closet if it gets loud. Or bangs their head on the table if there is a quiz.

It bugs me that teacher salary is always the main topic in strike debates. This is about so much more than money. It's classrooms over 90 degrees. It's larger class sizes then every red state. It's admin ignoring teacher issues and pushing teachers to advance failing students, illiterate students.