Apparently, teacher morale is low in the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District (SMJUHSD). At least that’s according to a survey the district’s faculty association told the Santa Maria Times about.
Union president Mark Goodman told the Times the association decided to poll its members because of an “unprecedented” 19 grievances the association has filed with the district. Goodman also said the association has been pushed out of the decision making process—pointing out things the district wanted and teachers didn’t, such as new class schedules. But teachers approved the contract that the association negotiated on their behalf that included the scheduling changes. So either the district held a gun to the teachers’ heads or teachers really are part of the decision making process.
And the district has asked the association to negotiate publicly a few times, and Goodman, being the good man and representative he is, has repeatedly told the district no. So, in reality, we—the public that reads about public employees in our public education system essentially tattling on each other in the newspaper—have no idea what teachers are involved in negotiating and what they aren’t or what goes on “behind closed doors.”
We only know what the district and the faculty association want us to know.
California Teachers Association representative Andrew Oman told the Times that the way the district is treating its teachers is akin to a student intimidating another student.
Whoa Nelly! Them’s fighting words.
It’s weird to me that whenever public disclosure about what goes on behind closed doors comes up, the conversation gets shut down. Look at what happened recently in the Lucia Mar Unified School District. Teachers threatened to strike and demonized the district. The district acted like it didn’t need the teachers. After more than a year of negotiating over salary stuff, a mediator came in and essentially said that if the contract didn’t get agreed on, some of the negotiations would be made public.
Within a couple of weeks, teachers and the district agreed to the contract with a salary increase that was on the table before the mediator stepped inside the fray.
It’s a little strange. I’m just saying.
Back to the poll: According to the Times, it was responded to by 182 out of the 379 bargaining unit members of the faculty association—bargaining members are generally tenured teachers, so no temporary teachers or new teachers. So, this little bird studied sociology at Canary U, and that’s what we call a sample size. A sample isn’t always representative of the whole, and if we’re being dependent on the people who take the liberty to respond to things, that could definitely skew said responses.
Anyway, SMJUHSD district Superintendent Mark Richardson responded to the things he didn’t appreciate in the article through an opinion piece, also in the Times. In it, he said the association only filed seven grievances.
“Even that number is from my perspective too high,” he wrote. Alright, now we’re getting somewhere. A concession, perhaps. But then he essentially insinuates that at least two of those seven grievances are stupid. So not really a concession. And we still don’t know all the grievances that were filed, because, well, they haven’t been made public yet.
So, Richardson’s saying Goodman’s lying, and Goodman essentially told the Times that Richardson sucks. And they both did it in the media. These are the district’s esteemed leaders, folks.
At the moment, I don’t think there are many role models for the district’s students to look up to. And I would say, those ever-important students are too often forgotten about when it comes to the adults and what’s made public of their infighting. In my humble-feathered opinion, everyone needs to grow up.
The Canary acts like an adult, sometimes. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 4-11, 2015.