So there really are people who still think Teachers aren’t important

So last night my kids and I went with my mom to support the Kansas City Teachers Union.  They were packing the school board meeting.  There were hundreds of teachers and family members there, so many that people were sitting on the floor and some where not even able to fit in the meeting room.  Of the 4 local news stations, only 2 showed up last night.  The NBC affiliate was there and had comprehensive coverage.  And the ABC station was there too and also had good coverage.  Missing were the CBS and Fox stations.  They were too busy covering stories on class rings being returned and a northland ballet school.  I have emailed both stations that were not there and the emails are as follows;

“I was just wondering why it was that the Kansas City School Board meeting that was packed by hundreds of Kansas City Missouri teachers, there to support their UNION leaders was not newsworthy enough for your station?  I will mention that you were not the only station to not show and I will also be contacting the one other station.  I am sorry that no one was threatening to do anything silly and so maybe that is why you chose to do other stories, but REALLY,? a class ring being returned is more important and interesting?  I and my kids seriously disagree.  By the way, we know that you were NOT there because we were there, supporting the teachers!”

“I was just wondering why it was that the Kansas City School Board meeting that was packed by hundreds of Kansas City Missouri teachers, there to support their UNION leaders was not newsworthy enough for your station?  I will mention that you were not the only station to not show and I will also be contacting the one other station.  I am sorry that no one was threatening to do anything silly and so maybe that is why you chose to do other stories, but REALLY,? a northland ballet school trumps the struggle of the teachers union?  I and my kids seriously disagree.  By the way, we know that you were NOT there because we were there, supporting the teachers!”

As you can see, the emails are basically the same, but I did find a news story each station had done instead to call them on.

Now if you do not want to go to any of the stories, the school board has terminated the teachers contract during the middle of negotiations.  Negotiations that really did not even need to happen at this time.  The Kansas City school district is in dire straights on educational issues as it is and only has 2 years in which to show that they are making serious improvements to their system before the state of MO comes in to take over.  Is this a smart time to decide to piss off the teachers?  I and the teachers don’t think so.

The meeting started late(as is usual for them as it turns out) and the president took time to point out that nothing could be voted on because they did not have a quorum and explained why the 4 members out of 9 were not there that night.  At a regularly scheduled meeting….only one of the members was ill, the rest had even flimsier excuses.  She also at one point said that a former student who is now an Olympic athlete(set to go to Beijing) has been trying to contact the district about upgrading the high school track programs and somehow the ball was dropped.  She really made it sound as though she was admonishing the teachers and administrators from the various schools for this failure.  When we all know that individual schools would never be allowed to handle such requests on their own.  So who dropped the ball?  I would have to guess someone downtown, like the district office or the school board.  Also the school board did put the Union last on the agenda…I am guessing to see how many people they could get to give up and go home.  People did not leave.

I lost track of how many standing ovations there were for the 3 union spokespeople, but my kids were up and cheering during all of them.  But the best/funniest part of the evening was when a lady who was not up on the agenda board was allowed to speak anyway.  She represented a parents’ group called Do the Right Thing For Kids (link to their blog)  They include contact information for the school board, including individual information.  She gave the report on the groups finds from the last two school board meetings that they observed.  It was NOT flattering to the school board, at all.  She got a whole lot of support and some standing ovations too.  Oh and you should have seen the district spokesperson shoot up like her butt was spring-loaded to get a copy of the report at the end.  The press who was there jumped at getting the information too.

The teachers plan to go to the July 23rd meeting also and will have signs ready at that meeting.  I at least will be there to support my mom and her fellow teachers.

Activist Ferret out

Tags: Family, FerretRants, Isn't this the 21st Century?, Teachers, Uncategorized, Unions, What the Fuck are you people THINKING!