This negotiation was much different than the others. We had four people on each side of the discussion. To me it seemed like there were two of us on each side that agreed on the same issues and the other two group members seemed to be the more outspoken people leading the discussion. I felt that a lot of the topics had more to discuss and negotiate than others. For example benefits we spoke mainly about maternity and paternity leave. There was no discussing if the father was not married if they get the time off or is it only those married to their pregnant wife who are allowed the time off like in the military. There were a lot more that could have been brought up on this topic, but I think its mainly because many of my peers are not married or have a full time job were these are important aspects to consider they never thought about time. When we sat down to discuss the dispute within the Newtown schools the teachers wanted a 10% increase in their salary. We knew before we even sat down that they were going to fight us hard for higher pay, but we had thought about 5% was our max before sitting down. So we settled at 6.0%- 6.5% increase. One of our top concerns was the work load of the teachers. With that being said we needed to increase the number of students in each classroom for one teacher. We also needed to cut back some time classes. This would mean more time for teachers to assist with other obligation around the school: lunch and bus duty for example. The teachers wanted to keep their prep and duty free time. I personally do not understand why we should be fighting over giving them this time. It is something that is necessary for teachers. My father is a 10-12 teacher and that off time is used for various things like grading, preparing the classroom for the next class, lunch/ bus duty or even to cover for other teachers. Also, its hard for students to learn and teachers to do their job with over crowed classrooms. This is something that everyone should understand from both sides. I do better in smaller(>20) classes than the ones that are packed (<30) students. It seems like what the board is asking for from the teachers is not reasonable if you actually think about it rather than just read the script. The teachers evaluations also were brought up for negotiation. There was not much to discus in this topic I thought. The main concern I have is the frequency of the evaluations and what happens after words. Does the teacher have a meeting to know how they performed? What happens if for some reason they perform below satisfactory? Things like this could be brought up. With all of that being said we still need to lay off some staff. When we sat down with the teachers one of them really felt strongly about knowing the actual number of teachers that were going to be let go. I think that how the teachers evaluations have some say in if a teacher may stay or go along with attendance and other topics that will be used.
Again, as a part of the school board and someone who recently had the hardest time finding a job I do not feel that the last minute notification was adequate. On average the hiring processing takes about 6 weeks or longer from the time you look for a job, submit your application, get the call for an interview and for orientation. There was not any mention anything about any cash flow to the teaches that will be let go so that is something as a board member I am happy about, but its not something that they brought up which could have caused more problems. It really seemed like everyone at the table were getting frustrated. Too bad we could not have swapped places for the next negation.
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