SNOW JOB!
In the March issue of the HEA Newsletter, President Joe Cunha addressed the snow day issue that consumed the Haverhill Public Schools in mid-February. His letter to the members appears below.
Dear Colleagues,
The continued accusations by School Committee members that teachers don’t care about their students are foolish and disrespectful but unfortunately not surprising to any of us. Parents and teachers understand that those who sit at School Committee meetings are politicians. I do hope the citizens of Haverhill question whether making such statements is appropriate in what is supposed to be a professional public meeting rather than a soapbox for political speeches. Ask one of our students who cares more about them: the School Committee and District Administration or their teacher?
The thought of altering vacation and causing such a huge change to the students’ lives with 2 days notice on the part of the Administration and School Committee was not the proper course of action to follow. In fact, it makes me wonder how much they care about our students and families. I feel the same way about the Administration’s statement that some schools have poor ventilation as a reason to alter the calendar. If buildings have poor ventilation, it affects people all year long, not just in June. If you were in charge of such buildings and cared about their inhabitants wouldn’t you fix this problem?
Stating that we would only talk about contract negotiations at our February 11 negotiation meeting was a lie. All we talked about were snow days. We informed them that we would stick by the June 30 date agreed to previously and that our polling refuted what Administration purported in its emails. We asked multiple times to create a plan should the year reach beyond June 30. They refused, threatened us with the possibility of a unilateral decision to defy the contract and hold school during February vacation, then they got up and walked out of the meeting.
The same goes for School Committee saying that we refused to meet with them before their February 26th meeting. While School Committee promised the Mayor on the 12th that they would contact us the next day, we heard nothing until February 18, the Wednesday of February vacation, when their attorney contacted our MTA Representative. She returned the call and left a message, but he did not return her call in time for the 26th. The 26th is the meeting where Administration told the Committee that per DESE regulations, there was no need to reschedule graduation. By the way, we informed you of that regulation at our general meeting on Monday the 21st. You must consider that with 185 days scheduled on the calendar all this fuss was made by Administration and the School Committee over going TWO DAYS beyond what they considered appropriate when they made the calendar. It was also still four days from the agreed upon June 30.
But was it really about the school year? In their January 14, 2015 bargaining proposal the School Committee demands that the school year begin the last full week of August. That would mean a start date as early as August 21st. (One might ask why these politicians declare the schools too hot to go to June 30 but OK in August.) Think as you wish, but I see this whole thing as an opportunity to create a crisis where there was none, to push their bargaining agenda. Teachers and Parents remember that when they attempt that transparent charade.
On February 10th the Administration began a campaign using the department email system to convince all that would listen that there was a crisis. This was only 6 calendar days and 1 snow day later than his prudent comments in the Eagle Tribune to “hold steady to see what rulings the state may make”, and “we are in good shape as we are three days ahead of others (communities).” Why the flip-flop?
While Administration stated that hundreds of teachers and parents all agreed with its plan, our polling of teachers by teachers was not in agreement with Administration’s report by a long shot. A vast majority of teachers rejected changes to February vacation and a majority had no desire to break the city contract language of June 30. I only ran into 6 parents during those two days. Four said “don’t let them change vacation, we have plans”; and the other two told me that either way they would not be sending their children to school during February vacation. Now I guess I could have put out a nonsensical communiqué stating that all the parents support not touching vacation but it would have been a lie.
The Administration has under its control the district email system that it uses to suit its purposes. Unlike the public airwaves, where if a political party communicates their agenda equal time must be given to the opposing political party to express their views, the district owns the system. We cannot, by contract, use that system for union communication.
Administration used the Haverhill School Department email in “an intensive effort at persuasion or deception”, defined by Merriam-Webster as a SNOW JOB!
We have our IContact email system but there are some flaws in the program regarding undeliverable emails that the program is not telling us whom that’s happening to. Please, if you did not receive emails from us from mid February on, once again give your name and home email address to your rep or action team member or directly to HavEd@verizon.net. Also, please start visiting our Facebook page facebook.com/HaverhillTeachers. We have to improve our ability to communicate with all members quickly and need your help with that.