Merry Merry Christmas (Eve)!!

I'm guessing that I won't be on here much tomorrow.  So , I'll leave you with a photo of my husband and kids circa 1998.  

Merry Christmas!

Struggling

Right now, I'm struggling with some personal issues that I'm not really sure how to tackle at this point in time.  Something happened about five years ago that led to a serious rift in our extended family.  Because of this rift, the holidays simply are not what they used to be and the person most accountable for it really doesn't seem to care about the ramifications of their actions.

This person has never been confronted directly by me. Instead, I've tried to pretend that everything is okay. However, five years later, it is not okay and it is my kids who have suffered by this person's selfish behavior.

So, I'm putting this out there.  If you were me, what would you do?

Shouldering the Burden

In order to try to weather the storm of the current budget crisis in the good ol' state of California, our District is looking at closing/consolidating several schools. Part of this is because over the past decade, we have lost approximately 5000 students for a variety of reasons.  Most of this loss occurred once we went into state receivership and our school board was stripped of its powers.

Over the past few years, this control has been slowly returned to the school board.  Right now the only area that is not in the purview of the school board is the finances, which is still in control of the state appointed administrator.  

School closures/consolidations is its first big decision that they have had to make in the past four years. Anyone who has lived in a community for any length of time understands how difficult this type of decision is for anyone - especially those whose positions are tenuous. Piss off the electorate and you've lost your seat.

However, most people also understand that sometimes tough decisions need to be made especially now during one of the most horrible economic downturns this state has ever seen.  

I think that teachers understand this better than anyone.  Most of us love our schools. The last thing we desire is closing the place where we have worked tirelessly for the students we love. That is why is was stunned when I heard the words uttered by one of the recently reelected incumbents.  In the last school board meeting, he stated that he would not be voting for any school closures. Okay, I'm fine with that. He (and the rest of the board for that matter) may very well vote to keep all the schools open.

However, when he stated that cuts would have to come elsewhere and demanded that the teachers union and other staff shoulder the burden, I just about came out of my seat.  

Let me break it down for you. So far, teachers have shouldered the burden over the past four years by 

• taking a 20% cut in pay by agreeing to give up full benefits.  This 20% expired when our contract expired in June.  Teachers are now picking up 33% of the cost of their benefits and each year as the cost increase, we get to pick up the difference.  
• losing over 300 of our colleagues.  
• the elimination of class size reduction which has seen K-3 class sizes increasing up to 32 students.  
• loss of classified staff by making our campuses less safe and impersonal to the families we are supposed to served.  
• With 15,000 students in our district, we have two nurses.  Our librarians have been virtually eliminated, but we have managed to hold on one to serve the whole entire district.  
  

Call me crazy, but I still maintain that our teachers and classified staff, we have MORE than shouldered the burden.