Inside a Strike OR Why I Hate the Media

I have mixed feelings right now. First, let me start with this: Being on Strike STILL IS WORK!!! I'm just not getting paid!

I wanted to write to you about what it's like to be a part of a strike. I wanted to give you an inside look and if I have time, I still will, but now I'm all riled up and probably will vent more than enlighten.

I got up at 6:00 AM and gathered with my school family at 7:00 AM. Today was the day our 16,000 students were to head back to school. Instead, 1200 teachers picked up picket signs with "On Strike," "No Contract, No School," "Each Student is Unique!" and my personal favorite, "One size doesn't fit all!" and walked up and down the streets in front of our schools for 8 hours.

It was crazy. Not only did I get to know my colleagues better, but we had almost 100% turnout districtwide for the strike, teachers and counselors. I am not usually the one to support strikes. In my mind, the stupid unions need to stop whining and go back to work. Now...today I felt like that was not the case with our community. Parents brought us water, telling us that Newport Parents support what we're doing. Students bought us donuts and came walking around to give them to us. Everyone kept honking in support. Seriously, it was almost constant honks from supporters. I felt good. I felt like our community was more positive than I would be, which is good.

At 4:00 we descended upon our district office, where our school board was meeting. Seriously...there had to be 900 (I want to say 1000, but I'm not sure) teachers circling that office. There were parents and kids. The kids had the best signs. I wish my camera wasn't dead because it would be a thing to capture. The kids had signs that said, "Don't let me get caught in the Web," and "My teachers know what I need."

None of us want to strike for long. All of us want what is best for students. All of us want the support of the community and I don't think anyone is doing this for the sole purpose of better pay.

After 8 hours of walking up and down that hill in the heat, holding my sign, I finally got to come home. My legs are more sore than they were when I was hiking through Ireland, and I could honestly barely make it to my door...but I felt good.

I wanted to see how the news portrayed it. Bad idea. I should have known better. Now I'm not as positive and I'm not going to tell you all the cute stories I have from picketing, because I'm much too bothered. The media is, of course, portraying the strike as mostly about pay. Don't get me wrong, it is partially about pay...because pay is part of the contract. The Bellevue school district was mandated by the state to give us a 5% raise since they hadn't given us a Cost of Living Adjustment for the past few years. Other districts in the area also negotiated new contracts and they gave their teachers a 2-4% raise (on top of the 5%)! We have some of the best teachers in the state driving over a 9 percent raise to come teach in bellevue because we can't afford to live here OR drive here because of the cost of gas. When they get to Bellevue they are given a script to "teach" their students and then asked to work extra hours to figure out how to make that script work and then taken out of the classroom to make more scripts for other teachers to use to teach their students. Freaking media...freaking Komo4 survey responses...

Blech.

For those of you who are actually interested:
long but a good summary of issue of curriculum
Best video summary of what curriculum web is about

So the reason I'm so grumpy is because of how the media is portraying our strike, mostly about pay (which it's not). Kiro isn't too bad, but still...note that they mention pay first.

http://www.kirotv.com/video/17371014/index.html
http://www.kirotv.com/video/17368954/index.html

We were even on the front page of the news. Both Kiro and Komo4 had a survey about what the public thought of the strike. Kiro's had only 7 respondants. Komo's had pages of respondants and they phrased their survey like this:

Back to school in Bellevue? Not yet.

Bellevue teachers voted Monday night to strike over pay and curriculum issues, meaning the first day of classes — scheduled for Tuesday — will be canceled.

The teachers acknowledge they are among the highest paid in the region, but say salaries have not kept pace with those in other districts.

What do you think about the union's decision to strike?

Sheesh! How do you think they feel after you phrased it like that? Many of the responses were very negative. We were lambasted that if we wanted to be payed more, we should work a full 12 months. We were told that we must not care for students since we're striking. We were told that we don't deserve to be payed more. We were told that our district has been increasingly doing worse for the past few years (gee guys...why would that be? When did the curriculum web start....?). One person said: "With all the students that do NOT graduate in this country and city, Why would they demand more benefits? Graduate students or get another line of work." Supid Ballard Person. If you knew anything, you'd know we graduate more students than most districts in the nation.

It really bothered me, all the negative comments, especially ones from parents in the Bellevue community. But then there were a few good ones, like this one:

As a parent of children in the Bellevue school district, I support the teachers overall. The district's proposal for salary is quite weak and the latest tactics by the district seem to be more aimed at undermining others' views of the teachers than on actually trying to reach an agreement.

As for the web curriculum. If 1200 teachers who have spent their careers teaching our children unanimously and unequivocally agree that the curriculum is poor, then I would have to agree with them and I think the district should call the plan a failure and work with teachers to redesign it. (Here is why I like our parents).

Unfortunately, the casualties in these cases are neither the district nor the teachers, but our children - including our 5 year old son who is now crying that he can't start kindergarten tomorrow. (I know...I hate that about the strike).


And this one:
"GO NEWPORT TEACHERS!!!! GO BELLEVUE DISTRICT TEACHERS!!!!"


The more I read, the more depressed I got. However, I do realize that it's not entirely their fault. They're being manipulated by the media and many of the Bellevue community did support us today. I just wish the district would hire good teachers and then let them do their job...then we wouldn't be in this mess.

ANYWAY...just so that I can end this on a slightly good note: Some things I heard while on strike (we were in a line, walking up and down in a big elliptical loop, hence passing each other every few mintues):

"OK! 20 questions!"
"My butt was on TV!"
"Ok, your turn.M."
"Minneapolis!"
"I'll give you a hint...it's not black and it's not alive"
"Well, then I guess it isn't Karen Clark's brain..." (KC is our superintendant by default...who mismanaged our finances for 7 years and proposed that we pay the district back the mismanaged money that they put into our health care)
"Do you REALLY!?! Joey's my favorite too!"
"Friends Marathon Thursday!"
"Ok, movies now. G."
"Fine...it's not a lollipop and it's not cement..."
"That's two thumbs down for Porches..."
"Yeah, but so far we're doing pretty good in the mini-van category."
"Minivans are our biggest supporters so far."
"When we had the strike in the 1980s..."
"A Clockwork Orange!"
"NICE!!! Ok Maureen, you're next."
"I'm still entertaining guesses!! Not a lollipop, cement or Karen Clark's brain!"

Seriously, those are the only ones I can remember, but there was a good amount of time there where I seriously felt like someone should be walking the picket line with a video camera just capturing the extreme oddity of the moments spent there. There were about 25 in our area so every time we turned I passed 24 other people, all having their own conversations, some of them strange, most of them cheerful, and a few who were trying to keep our attention and not getting much of any. All in all, I bonded with my staff today. I'm still on the outskirts. I'm not a popular kid and I never will be. But, at least more people know who I am. They know that I can talk and I know that I belong, even if I don't always feel that way.

I also wish I had a camera...but after today I think the photo opportunities are just not as great.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. The nice thing is...since I know we're not teaching tomorrow either, I can finally just go to bed tonight. No stress.

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