The Union

I often hear in the blogosphere grumblings on teachers union and how horrible they are. I have to admit that I tend to get a bit miffed because I've worked in a District that were it not for my Union, teaching conditions would be unbearable.

These are the things that I know that my union has done
*limits on class size overages
*keeping my classroom clean
*prep period
*benefits
*reimbursement for moving from one classroom to another
*ensuring that when lay offs occur that it's not done according to favoritism, rather it's done by seniority and qualifications.

In my school district, the district routinely tries to give teachers class sizes that are beyond manageable. For instance, I know for a fact that in three of our middle schools, this years class size overages occurred in all the Benchmark classes (what we used to refer to as GATE). These classes had anywhere from 36 to 40 students in one classroom. Our contract limits class sizes at the middle school to no more than 33 students with no more than 160 student contacts per day.

The same classrooms that had 3 to 6 more students than allowed by contract were never given adequate number of desks for these extra students. Students were forced to sit on the floor or stand during instructional time. While the jury is still out on the effectiveness of reduced classes, I would argue that trying to teach 40 12 year olds in a small classroom without the proper number of desks, is definitely not conducive to a good learning environment. (I have also often wondered why we are allowed to force a large amount of human bodies in one relatively small room without violating fire codes.)

My school district is one of the few places that I know of that had to be forced into a MOU (memorandum of understanding) to ensure that classrooms would be cleaned on a regular basis. The District has tried to save money by cutting back on our custodial staff. About a week ago, somehow my room got missed in the cleaning process for five days. I'm pretty conscientious it when it comes to making sure that my students pick up after themselves, but can you imagine how dirty my floor was after five days?

I value my prep period. This is the one "break" in the day that I get to do what I need to do in order to be successful in my classroom. This is the time that I can take copies, make phone calls, grade papers, or ::gasp:: use the bathroom! I often use this time to grade papers because one of the things I don't like to do is to take papers home to grade and I also don't like to grade during class time. Without that 50 minutes of daily prep time, I am sure I would feel very overwhelmed.

My husband's employer does not offer benefits. I am the sole provider of benefits for my family and even though we now have to pay 20% of our benefits, that is much better than having to pay all of the costs. My benefits cover medical, dental and vision. When you have a family of five, benefits are essential.

As regular readers of my blog know, I was forced to move out of my classroom a week before the start of the school year at the "whim" of my administrator. My contract ensured that I got paid for two days for moving from one classroom to another. My contract also ensures that my principal cannot move me from my current classroom for another two years without a justifiable reason. (As "luck" would have it, the payroll department screwed up the paperwork and only paid for two hours. Guess who I called to make sure this is taken care of a.s.a.p.? I'm supposed to have a new check cut for me by this Friday.)

When my district was going through a couple of years in which they had to lay-off people, I was one of the newbies that was well-liked by my then-principal. I received a lay off notice and was eventually laid off (albeit just for the summer, but I did have to apply in other districts and it was a very stressful summer), I understood the reason for the lay-off criteria as set forth in my contract. It doesn't allow for favoritism, rather it's based on longevity and teacher qualifications.

I'm sure that there are crappy unions out there and I'm also sure that there are really good administrators that get that all of us are there for the kids. However, my own experience (especially this year) has made me extremely grateful for the strength of my own union. A union is only as strong or as weak as its members want it to be. The next time there is a union election, try to round up some people that have the same issues with the union as you do. Shake up the leadership! Just like our very own democracy, we shouldn't complain about the leadership if we aren't willing to to get involved and agitate for change.