Great News PSD, it's a Blue Light Special!

Attention K-Mart Shoppers.
Attention K-Mart Shoppers.


We have a special going on right now in school supplies. A ten pack of red pens for only 28 cents!

Oooh... smoother ink! Sounds fancy!

If you aren't already laughing, allow me to let you in on a little joke.  A major concern of teachers that has been highlighted during recent contract negotiations, has been the lack of adequate supplies.  PSD claimed teachers had everything they needed; teachers claimed they were spending hundreds of dollars out of their own pockets to supply their classrooms with basic essentials.

As the two sides worked to find a reasonable compromise, one of the proposals that PSD put forth to the teachers union outlined exactly what supplies PSD was willing to buy for teachers.  On the list of supplies the district promised to teachers were red pens. But, they didn't just say they would provide teachers with red pens. They were actually quite specific about how many red pens each teacher would receive.  How many you ask?

Bob, tell them what they've won!

This pen and a whole, fabulous eraser could be yours!

Congratulations teachers, you've just won a year's supply of red pens! That's right each of you will receive one full red pen to use any way you like, all year long. This prize package is valued at 2.8 cents! Congratulations!!!!!

So our ever generous district administrators were willing to give each teacher one red pen. One. I know money is tight, and we shouldn't waste, but c'mon! One? Take a peek back at the picture above. Target is currently selling ten packs of red pens for 28 cents. That means you could go today and buy what the district claims is a year's supply of red pens for EVERY teacher in the district (all 1,100 of them) for about $30.00.

Unfortunately nobody is buying these pens. Teachers still don't have a contract (despite countless promises, and despite teachers returning to work in good faith). So no one knows who's job it is to buy red pens. Teachers are trapped in limbo waiting to know what supplies will be provided. They could go out and buy their own (like they do most years), but they been told for weeks that they would get a list of available supplies soon. So it would be irresponsible to spend money on something they are about to get anyway. It makes more sense to save their money and use it for things they can't get through the district. But without a contract, no one knows what those things are. And so we wait. Once again our children's education is on hold while we wait for the district to step up and do what's right.  

Want to help your teachers out? Email them today and ask what they need.  I hear there's a sale at Target.   ;) 
 

Is it time to start cleaning house yet?

PSD is like my kids' bathroom.  No, not because it's full of crap. And not because people keep peeing all over it.
 
PSD reminds me of my bathroom, because it's been a long time since it had a good cleaning.

Nobody wants to go in there.

Unfortunately it's quite common for me to go too long between deep cleaning my kids' bathroom. With how busy life is, I will just do a quick clean up, wipe down counters, scrub the toilet and call it good.  That's how things are in PSD right now. See a problem? Sweep it under the rug. Need to look like you're taking care of things? Just invent another administrative position. Schools are failing left and right? PSD wants to do a quick-fix cleanup and move on.

Today I did a real deep clean of my kids' bathroom. Yep even Alice has to clean bathrooms once in a while.  It had that awful little boy pee smell (sorry is that TMI?) that is hard to get rid of, and I knew it had to be really scrubbed down and bleach the heck out of everything because it was getting out of control. I confess, I was starting to get use to the smell. It was becoming our new norm. Thankfully though it got bad enough that I knew I had to get in there and do the hard work of cleaning things out and not just cover things up.

When you go that long between really deep down cleaning it makes it THAT much harder to get the smells out and make it look really good again. And while you're down on your knees scrubbing up the urine, you see things you didn't even realize were there. You start noticing all the stuff that's been ignored. It's gross and NOT pretty, and soon nobody wants to use that bathroom anymore. You can't just hide everything in the drawers, you have to take the trash out, wash the rugs, and scrub the hair gel off the counter. When you get down and really scrub the floor you notice all the stuff that was easily ignored when you were standing up.

Saundra's Throne

PSD is a really stinky bathroom. Everyone knew there were problems, but when we took a minute to look at the issues, we saw the dirt went a whole lot deeper. There is grime here that may never come out. We may need a complete remodel. Now I'm not saying there is nothing good here. The shower still works. There is a functioning toilet (sure you have to jiggle the handle a little, but it's livable). And there's this amazing contraption called a "sink" where fresh water magically pours out any time of day and any temperature you want! It's pretty cool. Most of the world doesn't have one of those! But the truth is, it still stinks. And not just a little. It stinks so much that some people don't want to go in there anymore. They are going over to Richland and Kennewick to use the bathroom. And that's just sad.

So before we have to call in a Haz-Mat team, can we just get in there and start cleaning? Can we just fix it? Can we stop making excuses for how it got so stinky and just accept that it stinks and clean it up?  Can we be honest and say how much it stinks without hurting each other's feelings? Can we not argue about "Why didn't teachers tell us how stinky this bathroom was sooner?"

When my little boys pee all over the bathroom floor (and believe me, they do!), I don't blame my little girls for not telling me sooner. When my little girls complain about the pee on the floor, I don't tell them to just step over it. And I certainly don't make them clean it up. You know who I make clean it up?  The little boys who did all the peeing in the first place, the little people who have stunk up the place!

In summation:
PSD = my boys' stinky pee bathroom that you have to keep clean daily.

Now let's get busy.

The Amazing Alice, Public Relations C.R.A.P. Consultant

Hello, Hello all! I’ve missed you, my darlings. After the strike ended, I had to take a long vacation in the Caymans just to unwind, which is why I’ve been incommunicado for a bit.

Just kidding, that’s not true unless “in the Caymans” is a good word approximation of “cleaning my toilets.”

Anyway!

These happy clients could be YOU, PSD.

I’m here now to offer my vast experience and overwhelming credentials to the Pasco School District in their PR campaign aimed at “healing” the community after all this nasty business of the nasty strike. Just to be clear, I am assuming that “experience” means “stuff I’m thinking” and “credentials” means “Opinions”. I hear the job of a consultant pays pretty well, so I figure it’s worth a shot. Consider this my resume and feel free to contact my assistant to offer me a contractor’s slot in your payroll as soon as you’re done reading my outstanding plan. I swear my assistant is not imaginary.

PSD, you need a whole lot of C.R.A.P.

C.R.A.P. stands for Credibility, Rapport, Accountability and Personable Persona. Yes, I know that’s two letter Ps there in a row but I’m not changing the acronym. You don’t pay me enough.

Let's start out this presentation with the very first letter, Credibility

First, imagine this highly probable scenario playing out in the near future.

Pasco School District 1’s Q&As for Maytember 33rd:

Question: What color is the sky?

Answer: It is PSD’s belief that the sky is blue

After reading this on Facebook, instead of nodding their heads, most residents and employees would narrow their eyes, get up from their computers to check the color of the sky personally, and then wonder if they were seeing things when you were actually proven correct.

What do PSD and this woman have in common? Great hair?

Let’s face it, my darlings of PSD administration. The majority of the people of Pasco have a hard time believing everything you say right now. They actually have a hard time believing anything you say right now. Because of certain tendencies recently displayed in your Q&As, press releases and official policies, people have a hard time trusting you. Don’t get huffy about it, just accept it. You can't change what you don't admit, so for the sake of everyone please hear and understand that  you currently have a credibility score of negative twenty-five on a scale of one to ten. You have asked the city to suspend their disbelief for your narrative above and beyond Michael Bay Blockbuster level, but you have no entertaining robots to make up for it.

Optimus says,"If you cannot be credible, you must be made of metal and willing to punch Decepticons."

For this reason, and as part of the CRAP strategy I propose, I highly advise you as your highly paid adviser, to stop using phraseology such as “things like this just take time” and “have faith in us” and “that is slated to be worked on in the near future”. You don’t have enough C to make those phrases fly for now. Do not issue “answers” that do not answer questions, and do not make any assertions in your publications that don’t have cited references. Then provide the references.

Soon, Fitbit will be able to
track the number of Uptown
Funk parodies you've seen.

That’s the Don’ts. The billion dollar question then, is, how DO you rebuild your credibility and regain the trust of the community? DO EVERYTHING YOU SAY YOU WILL DO. I know, this is hard but trust me on this, it’s the only way to get the C back in your life. If you say you’re implementing a program on October 10th, do it on October 10th, don’t provide an excuse why it wasn’t done. If you say you’re looking into issues with the stickiness of the post-it notes at Livingston, do so and then prepare a report on adhesives and paper products of the Livingston Leopards. If you say you’re taking 10,000 steps each day as part of a district wide fitness program, take 10,001 steps and then submit your Fitbit report online where everyone can see it. Bottom line: DO IT and PROVE IT.

The second part of CRAP Model ®  is Rapport.

Rapport

Consultant in French is actually
"Moi More Monette"

This is a French word that means “awesome person with the sweet rhythms and rhymes,” but colloquially in English it means empathy, sympathy and connection. If you and I have rapport, we have things in common, you understand how I feel and I understand your feelings in a similar way. Just to be clear, you and I do not have rapport right now as I am a highly credible public relations consultant and you are a school district. But you still need rapport with your community.

That means you talk about the stuff you have in common and the concerns you’ve all got, the worries you all feel and the s’mores you all eat. One of the quickest ways to build rapport with your community, or with anyone really, is to acknowledge the validity of their feelings. Tempers have been running hot lately, and people often say things in anger that they regret later. However, just because something is said with passion or even anger doesn’t mean it’s not true. An experience presented with barely concealed fury isn’t invalid simply because of the emotional presentation. I can probably sound almost livid while reciting the capitals of each of of the United States but that doesn’t mean those cities don’t exist, it just means I have a real beef with geography.

Oh honey, it's okay that you're unhappy about your kids
having to go to school with rats. You're allowed to have mild
irritation for that one, actually!

So, saying something like “Your emotions are preventing us from communicating” or “I don’t share your concerns” is going to be a big no-no in the highly respected CRAP ® model. Another big oopsie would be only listening to or referencing the one person in the proverbial room who vocally does agree with you. Bros, if ninety-nine people in the room are upset and one person isn’t, it’s not your job to make us all listen to the one person, it’s your job as a top-notch rapport-building-kingpin to accept the sentiment of the other ninety-nine and let us know you feel us. You say “Yeah, man. If I was in your shoes, I think I’d be pretty cheesed, too.” This doesn’t mean you let mob-mentality rule the day, it just means you know it’s okay for people to have feelings and you let them know it’s okay, too. Since. You know. They’re people, not robots. ...unless they are robots….

The third part of CRAP Model ® for Peace and Public Happiness is Accountability

Despite many rumors to the contrary, Accountability is not a reference to the abilities of accountants. So what does accountability mean? Hey, I’m a highly paid friendship campaign manager, not a dictionary writer. So let’s find out what the dictionary does say.

noun

1. the state of being accountable, liable, or answerable.

So, accountability is being answerable and responsible for the stuff you’re supposed to do, no matter what venue it’s in. If you’re accountable for shining those pleather boots at the Spice Girls Tribute Band Review those platforms and heels better be glowing. Responsibility and accountability go hand in hand, you pretty much can’t be responsible if you’re not also accountable. CRAP ®© says they can pretty much be used interchangeably and since that’s the gold standard for today, we’re going with it.

So if someone says “I take responsibility” for something, people generally think that person is going to be accountable or answerable for that thing. If Tim the security guard says, “I take responsibility for turning off the alarms at the spatula museum before the place got robbed blind,” you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Tim has resigned or been fired. Or assigned to the back room to think about what he’s done. No, Tim is fired. The country will feel this loss for years.

I personally think it’s awfully brave of Saundra Hill to publicly state that she takes responsibility for the lack of curriculum in Pasco. However, if she’s not also submitting herself as accountable for this, claiming responsibility is as empty as half the bags of cereal in my cupboard. They look like they’ve got a lot to them, but when you lift them up, it’s almost all air. Taking responsibility means nothing if there is no penalty for messing up. You are not responsible if there are no repercussions for dropping the ball. Coincidentally, mentioning you take responsibility for something and then blaming someone else for the problem in the very next breath is a no-no under the CRAP®© plan. Might be a no-no all over the place. I’ll have my copyright lawyers look into that one.

™CRAP®© says you must have accountability. So what should you do, PSD, if you want to be true to yourself and your consultant’s valuable (in a real, monetary sense) advice? Have real, measurable accountability. And do it top-down, so the janitorial staff doesn’t feel picked on. Picking on Janitors is not cool, this is not an eighties teen movie.

This man never failed to
provide curriculum for
public schools again. 

You don’t have to air everyone’s dirty laundry for the whole city to see. Let’s face it, some socks should never see the light of day. Simply make sure that if your peeps have publicly and royally let the souffle fall, they are not allowed to go on their merry way as though nothing has happened. I’m not suggesting specific penalties because I don’t think Pasco even has public stocks (but if I were to make a suggestion, I would suggest that stocks are always a good idea). I do suggest that seeing some kind of reprimand, either professional or financial, would go a long way to restoring public trust. I am a highly paid specialist so you can trust me on this.

Last but not least in the highly acclaimed, New York Times Bestselling ™CRAP ®© Model for restoring public trust is Personable Persona.

When I was a little Alice and my brothers, sisters and I broke Mama Alice’s prize vase by playing rugby on the piano, it was hard to decide who to send to her to let her know. Just kidding, it was totally easy, we sent little Jason. Jason was a 3 year old, angelic boy with large, heartrendingly beautiful brown eyes and a mop of unruly, curly black hair. He was like a not-creepy Precious Moments figurine. Looking at him would cause most adults to spontaneously put candy in his hands, even those who have not picked up candy in years. He had this indefinable quality that just made him easy to get along with. Easy to sympathize with. And easy to not kill. He had a Personable Persona.

And so, PSD administration, my highly respected and generous employers, I must advise you, as the totally credibly, completely qualified and worth-every-penny consultant/advisor/self-declared expert that I am, find yourself a little Jason to talk to the people for you. Truth be told, I believe you already have one on staff, besides myself, of course. Shall we examine our ranks?

Saundra Hill is an incredibly cunning and intelligent woman, but she lacks a certain softness that makes people want to agree with her. Glenda Cloud is a sweet Grandma-type but she doesn’t have that star quality you need. Sarah Thornton is probably too busy with legal stuff, Randy Nunamaker would inspire too much jealousy and Carla Lobos already has a night gig superheroing in Seattle. No, I’m not going to go through all Twenty-Four main Administrators you have on tap because we all know it’s not necessary.

Jack was powerful...

Michelle Whitney, Pasco School District’s Superintendent-in-waiting, would be my first choice. Should be yours, too. I mean, have you seen her hair? Studio 1 out in Kennewick might be expensive, but they do some FINE work. Clearly the exquisite taste was already there, though. This is a woman with a fashion sense and poise the likes of which I’ve not seen since Twiggy. And that’s not all, my friends. Teachers like her. Students like her. Small animals like her. My 70 year old next-door neighbor likes her and he hasn’t had a K-12 aged student for a quarter-century. Yet for some unfathomable reason, she never really steps out into the limelight of our hearts.

...but I'd rather talk with Rita.

With the big P in the ™CRAP ®© (patent pending) Model, you do NOT hide your glittering starlet behind the wall when the press is around. Don’t leave your on-air “statements” to other “official spokespeople” when you have a Camera Ready Face the likes of which we’ve yet to see in the public education system right here. You don’t leave others to make comments and answers questions when you have this up and coming diva card already in your hand. People like this woman so much, it makes me wonder if she’s either casting spells with her pumps or is some type of sociopath/siren. 

I suppose, PSD, you might be saving your big guns for a rainy day but I gotta tell you, from a PR standpoint, it’s Hurricane season right now. Bring the lady out, already. Let her speak to the people, let her answer the press’s questions, let her coffee and croissant with the parents. If you plan on making good on a “healing” campaign, you need a Personable Persona that is far more likable that what you’re utilizing right now.  

Well, Pasco School District, I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief foray into my ™CRAP ®© (patent pending) Model, soon to be a major motion picture. I will expect a phone call from your fiscal service department setting me up as a consultant some time in the next twenty-four hours. I keep normal banking hours, so please no calls after 5 p.m. or texts after 6.

*             *              *

Alice in Pascoland!

As a final, exciting announcement, I’ve just learned that Universal Studios has just signed Amber Heard to play me in the official motion picture of the ™CRAP ®© (patent pending) Model! Additionally, Chris Hemsworth, Justin Clynes and and Chris Pine have all submitted head-shots and are currently auditioning for the coveted role of Randy Nunamaker.

Worth Fighting For!

It is a really great day today in Pascoland!

After two weeks on strike, teachers are finally back in the classroom with the children they love! (and mom's are home with a few hours of peace!!!).   More important than just being back in school, things have changed in Pasco.  An entire community of parents, teachers, students, friends, neighbors all came together and said Enough! We're tired of being the red-headed step-child of Pasco! Our kids deserve better!

And better is what we are getting. Better books. Better supplies. Better classes. Better teachers. Better schools. Better at voicing our opinions. Better at working together. Better at standing up for one-another. Better blogs (okay, that one was a little self-serving).

We have won a great battle in the war for our children's futures. And that my friends is something #worthfightingfor

Can you hear me now?

Ya know that feeling you get when someone yells at you and it makes you totally want to help them?

Or what about those times when you make a mistake and everyone belittles you and it makes you really want to be friends with them?

NO.

Nobody feels this way.

Imagine what it must be like to be on a school board.

They volunteered for this because they want to help kids. This isn't their real job. They don't get paid for the hundreds of hours they spend working for our schools. Education is not typically their chosen profession. They really have no idea how a school district is suppose to be run. They are put in charge of keeping the superintendent and district in check, and yet all the information they are given in order to do their job comes strait from the district.When something goes wrong, they get all the blame. Angry citizens pack the board room and take their two minute turns to complain and express frustration. They get emailed all day long about every problem big and small. When they don't respond people get mad. When they do respond, people get even madder. They can't win.

Now imagine you're a member of Pasco's school board.

It must really suck to be them right now, right?

So let's just give them a break. They are trying their best, so let's just leave them alone and move on.

Just kidding!

They signed up for this, and volunteers or not, they have a job to do and it's our job to make sure they do it! We've already agreed, however, that yelling at people and belittling them isn't the way to win friends and influence people. So how do we make friends with the school board in order to gain their trust and help? I'm glad you asked.

Let's take take a look at a few simple steps to improving our communication with the school board.  WARNING: it's not always easy to do things the right way.
 
Step 1.
Remember the school board are all volunteers. So like it or not they need to be appreciated. They are taking time away from their families so we need to show them we are grateful for their efforts.  Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Step 2.
Nobody likes to be yelled at. Ever. So stop it. No matter what.
You catch more flies with honey, so try saying something nice. Perhaps serve them up a nice compliment sandwich:  compliment/criticism/compliment.
It goes like this, "I appreciate the time you have volunteered to serve our community/ but I don't think you are doing the right thing by refusing to participate in contract negotiations/ and I believe you have the integrity to make a better choice in the future." See, wasn't that fun? Now you try.

Step 3.
Keep in mind that this isn't their area of expertise (but they may not know that), so instead of criticizing their mistakes, use it as a teaching moment. Assume that they just don't know why their choices are wrong, and use your knowledge to help them understand the situation better.

Step 4.
Just like candy, nobody feels good taking advice from strangers (unless you are taking advice from me, that is okay to do). So if you aren't already on a first name basis with the board members, this may not be the best time for you to be trying to call in a personal favor. But it's never too late to try, so start today to get to know them. Email them, tell them who you are and what you  would like to see for the district.

Step 5.
Be patient. As someone who gets a lot of fan mail (and a smidgen of hate mail too), I can tell you that it is impossible to respond to every email I receive. So if you email a board member and they don't respond, that doesn't mean they didn't read it. And if they do respond and it looks like a form letter, don't take it personally.  Go back to step 4 and keep building that relationship.

Step 6. The board members are real people with real families. If you see them in real life, be nice. Ask how they are doing. Treat them like a human.  People will usually live up to your expectations (unless they are psychopaths or evil geniuses), so treat them how you want them to be.


The school board has to meet inside that awful bastion of doom we call the Booth Building. It must be horrible for them to be in that dark place for hours at a time. And while they are in there, they are getting their heads filled with whatever half-truths and misdirections the district sees fit to feed them. Speaking of feeding, they also get a lot of cake!


Picture for a moment two scenarios:

Scenario ONE: You are in a room full of women (group one) who feed you cake, tell you you're awesome, and then ask you to autograph a bunch of papers that have no real meaning to you. Group one tells you a bunch of "facts" including telling you that group two is just angry and uniformed.

Scenario TWO: You are in a room full of angry citizens (group two) telling you how wrong you are and demanding that you answer a bunch of questions for which you have no answer. Group two also tells you a bunch of facts including telling you that group one is made up of people who are either completely incompetent or evil geniuses.

Group two might be telling you the truth, but if they do it in a loud and angry way it might be a hard truth to hear. Group one might be telling you a lie, but they are saying it with cake and that is hard to argue against.

It would be nice if we could just snap our fingers and get the cake-eating zombies to wake up, but that isn't going to happen.

The point here is that if we are ever going to convince the board that the thousands of us are telling the truth and that a few in the Booth are lying, we are going to have to say it nicer than that.

Is it easy? No. Being a grown up rarely is.
But it is the right thing to do. And we are right, so let's act like it.

Injunction junction, what's your function?

Last week PSD filed an injunction against its teachers, but what does that really mean?


Basically an injunction is a legal way for one party to complain about another. And then Mommy (or the court) in this case gets to decide if they want to step in and punish the offender.  Now you have all seen kids fight. It can play out in a million different ways, with varying degrees of fault. Often with our own kids we try to determine not just if a child's actions are right or wrong, but if they were justified or provoked as well. We look at both children and all actions to see the whole picture and not just pass judgement on a single action.

Unfortunately the court has a lot less freedom than we do as parents. The court can only look at the circumstances brought before them and specific precedents in the law related to the case. In most people's minds the fact that the district is breaking the law by not having a comprehensive curriculum is enough to justify the teachers decision to break the law against teacher strikes.  But the law doesn't allow one crime to justify another.  In this case the judge can only rule on one matter of law: is the strike legal? Or must teachers go back to work?

Technically the strike is illegal. However lots of other districts have done it, and plenty of other judges have looked the other way opting not to get involved. The judge in Pasco has decided that it is his place to step in. He has ruled that teachers must come to an agreement or the teachers' bargaining team will be fined.  It's legally fair, but not really fair. If you had two kids fighting, and you turned to one of them and said, "If both of you don't behave I'm going to just spank one of you," how do you think that would turn out? That is essentially what is happening. The court is deciding to spank one side if both sides don't cooperate. In the words of every seven year old on the planet, "That's not fair!!!!" The district still has no motivation to cooperate or play nice. But Courts are not playground and the judge is not a parent. That is just life.

So if the judge can't force the district to cooperate in this situation, who can? The district is breaking the law by not having curriculum. Any citizen of Pasco can file a law suit against the district. It won't speed up the bargaining process but it will at least make things a little more "fair."

The school board members could choose to come in and assist with bargaining. Right now they have decided as a group to stay out of this issue. But they have every legal right to decide to join the proceedings as witnesses if they want to.

The time may soon come when teachers are forced to go back to class without a contract. At that point it will be up to us, the citizens of Pasco, to continue to put pressure on Saundra Hill and her friends to do what's right for our kids.

in·junc·tion

inˈjəNG(k)SH(ə)n/

noun

noun: injunction; plural noun: injunctions

1. an authoritative warning or order.

   synonyms:

   order, ruling, directive, command, instruction; More decree, edict, dictum, dictate, fiat, mandate, writ; warning, caution, admonition "the injunction prevents Sunday trading"

   • Law

     a judicial order that restrains a person from beginning or continuing an action threatening or invading the legal right of another, or that compels a person to carry out a certain act, e.g., to make restitution to an injured party.

Why Pasco is really Ant Island

When life gets confusing, I often turn to Uncle Walt to help me sort out the facts.  Today the story of A Bugs Life speaks to me.

In the movie, Flik is a regular ant who just wants to help out.  Flik is you and me.

On Ant Island, all the ants work hard gathering food for the winter. The ants are all the parents and teachers of our great community.

Occasionally a few grasshoppers (who are much much bigger than the ants) come to ant island, bully the ants, and take their food. The grasshoppers claim they are doing this to "help" the ants.   The grasshoppers are the Booth building administrators.

The ants have leaders who try to help, but in the end they are scared of the grasshoppers too, and feel they have not power. These ant leaders are Pasco's principals.

Eventually Flick gets the idea to go find bigger bugs to help the ants fight back against the grasshoppers.  He goes to the big city and finds a group of warrior bugs to help.  These new bugs are the school board.

Unfortunately we soon learn that the warrior bugs are actually circus bugs, and they do not feel like there is anything they can do to stop the grasshoppers.


All hope seems lost. How can tiny little ants stand up to a group of giant grass hoppers?

Then something wonderful happens. The ants decide to fight anyway. They decide to stand up for each other even at the risk of being hurt by the grasshoppers. They realize they may not have much power individually, but they are very powerful together.

The ants fight the grasshoppers and win. Even the little baby ants do their part to stop the grasshoppers. The circus bugs who thought they had no power fight along side the ants and a new trust and alliance is formed.

The moral of the story?   We don't have to tolerate bullies. There is strength in numbers. We can win.
Parents and teachers of Pasco. Keep up the fight. We are right. We are many. And we will win.

Q & Alice

Since the school district has been so willing to answer questions publicly, we thought we'd return the favor.

As time goes on we will continue to update this Q & A page, so please come back and check often. If you have a question for Alice, let us know. We'd love to dig up some answers for you! Also, we'd like to note that we will be doing this in the same format and style as PSD's Q&As, so we get to answer how we like in what fashion we like and sometimes inject our own questions into the mix to make sure people think about what we want them to think about instead of what they'd like to. 

Enjoy!

Why did the District notify families so late about Tuesday’s school closure?                                                
 Because the District fully expected the teachers to meekly give up and return to work.

      As has been the case in past negotiations, the district has just assumed that they are right and everyone else must do what they say. It is strange that a district who routinely breaks and skirts the law (ya know, by not having curriculum, canceling meetings without proper notice, etc.) would be surprised that a simple court order wouldn't be enough to convince 1200 teachers to give up on what they believe in. 

   When will school start again?
      No one knows. Anyone who says they do is lying. The school calendar has to be negotiated and agreed upon in bargaining, so until an agreement is reached, there is no school. It really stinks not knowing. It's hard for kids. It's hard for parents. It's hard for teachers. So call the district and let them know you want them to settle this now.

How is the strike illegal if the teachers don’t have a contract?

Teacher strikes are illegal in Washington, that's written into the law.  The side note and the good news is there is NO punishment outlined in the law. And any three year old can tell you that a rule without a consequence is no rule at all. Each teacher has signed an individual contract with the District promising to work this year, and hopefully that work will begin soon (as soon as PSD gets contract language together that guarantees curriculum).

This is a common apple core.

Does PSD use common core?

The common core standards were adopted by the State as the new Washington State Learning Standards.  All Washington school districts must use those standards. Unfortunately the few books we have don't align with common core because they are more than twenty years old. The district has tried to say that the new standards are the reason they haven't updated their books sooner. I guess they have been anticipating implementing common core since 1995? Michelle Whitney must be a seer, providing her services to PSD for her entire career. We assume it was on her resume when she applied for the position of superintendent.

Who determines the teacher salary?
The State of Washington (the Legislature) determines the base salary schedule. But each district is allowed to pay teachers above the state allotted funds. In fact the superintendent's salary is determined by the state as well, but PSD has no problem adding an addition $100K to our current Superintendent's pay check every year out of levy dollars.

Is it possible to set up some kind of lunch distribution for the kids while they're not in school? Kind of like they have at Memorial Park during the summer?

Due to concerns with many of our children’s access to nutritious meals, the District looked into offering this as an option during the strike.  Unfortunately, the Federal funding source would not extend meals into this week so our kids will not have access to them. The good news is no matter when school starts, students will still get the same 180 free meals they have come to expect. So while some kids may be missing out on school lunch this week, they will get an extra week of school lunch in June.  We would hope that these families would take advantage of local resources such as churches, food banks, and food stamps as well. We also hope that PSD's bargaining team would move to end this strike as soon as possible to get all those kids back into classrooms. But in the mean time maybe Saundra Hill or Michelle Whitney could use some of their generous salaries to set up a little lunch in the park? Lots of teachers buy snacks with their own money to help their students make it through the day, I bet Saundra and Michelle would love a chance to get in on that action!

What is the District doing with the money congress gives them? How much has been accumulated? 
Millions. Millions upon millions. In fact, PSD has so much money set aside that our representatives in Olympia have stated they are disinclined to give PSD any more matching funds since they aren't even using the money they already have. This becomes a more serious issue when we try to build new schools, which are currently desperately needed. Having money for a rainy day is important, that is what the 5% balance that's frequently touted is for.  However we know that if we don't manage the funds given in alignment with the expectations set out for the use of that money, the legislature will not be giving us more. Our high end fund balance has already come to Olympia's attention. Continuing to hoard funds would be extremely unwise at this point.

The legislature frowns upon the use of open air money pools for swimming.

Who is included in the curriculum adoption process?
Current District policy states that the Instructional Materials Committee (IMC) shall review and approve the recommendations of curriculum adoption committees for all textbook selections prior to school board adoption. This committee includes staff and community representation. The parent membership on the committee shall make up less than one-half of the total committee membership as is consistent with state law. Unfortunately members of this committee claim they have met less than once every two years, and that when they have made recommendations, the district has ignored them and gone on to purchase inferior (and insufficient) curriculum instead.

Where is the curriculum?
There is a link on the District website that shares the adopted curriculum for each grade level. http://www.psd1.org/Page/7624 As you can see this link is garbage. For a look at what real curriculum access looks like, try Richland's website.It is beautiful. http://www.rsd.edu/teach-learn/curriculum.html

Is there anyone independent of the two sides who can verify any of this? We are hearing two vastly different versions of events. The truth generally lies somewhere in between. Is there a way for the public  to confirm for themselves what to believe?

Although details of negotiations are legally unable to be shared, PSD has chosen to continue to post the proposals anyway. In fact the district requested mediator has told PSD to stop posting so many details, but they are continuing to do it anyway. If you want a first hand account of what is going on, go to the source. Ask the two bargaining teams themselves. And see who answers you.

Would it be possible to read the attendance records of the meetings? I realize we cannot be included in the negotiations, but is it prohibited for the public to know when either party was late, refused to negotiations, or completely refused to meet at a predetermined time?

PSD has refused to meet without a mediator there, so they certainly aren't making things convenient. As far as a log of who was there? It doesn't appear to exists, but again you could ask the people who were there.

Where is the sense of urgency? Was there something else more pressing than getting my children back in school?

PSD has been very busy hiring lawyers, going to court, and holding press conferences. This has substantially cut into the time that they have been able to actually do their job.  The District would like the teachers’ union to end the strike and come back to work while bargaining continues, but teachers know this is a stupid idea, since more has been accomplished in one week of striking than has been accomplished in a whole summer of bargaining.

 

Is it true that some teachers eat children for breakfast?
No. A previous PSD employee was quoted as saying, "These kids are so cute I could just eat them up," but after a thorough investigation it was determined that this was just a figure of speech and the employee posed no real harm to children.

What specific learning resources can the District suggest to parents/guardians to help provide supplemental learning opportunities at home when students are not in school in preparation of the Spring SBACs?
Why are you asking for advice from a district that has failed to provide comprehensive curriculum and has been rated by the state as failing in almost all categories? My guess would to do what you do to prepare any child for a ridiculously difficult standardized test, which is work on their foundation reading and comprehension skills and then engage in family discussion about why standardized tests don't really determine their worth as a person. Then have ice cream.

We love football. Come on, admit it, you do too.

It is my understanding that, as a teacher, I am not to be on district property until the strike is resolved. Does that include attending football games at Edgar Brown Stadium?
Schools are closed so that teachers can't get into their classrooms and prepare for the school year. Teacher access to email and power school has been cut off so that teachers can not get to know their class list, or prepare in any way for their incoming students. But everybody loves football!  For this reason, teachers may certainly attend the football games at the Stadium.

I've heard that other school districts in Washington may be striking. Is this true? 
Yes.  What is interesting is that in most other districts, teachers are just asking for more money. In those districts, teachers are getting what they ask for. Unfortunately in our district they are asking for something way crazier- CURRICULUM! And they still can't get it.

Is it true that children are starving because of the strike?
No. If children are going hungry, it is not a result of the strike. The school has provided 180 days of free lunches every year in the past, and will continue to do so this year. So those children without food at home will be no hungrier this year than they been every other year. If you are truly concerned about the hungry children of Pasco, you should be worried about them with or without a strike. Their needs remain the same.

Teachers seem genuinely concerned that there is not a standard district-wide curriculum yet the District says there is. What does district wide curriculum mean and do we have it? 
The District has changed its answer on this subject about six billion times give or take.  First they said we had it. Then they said we didn't have it and it would cost too much to buy. Then they said we could afford it but it would take years and years. Finally they said they can't buy it because they need teachers to come back to school and tell them what they want.  The truth is some grades and some subjects have curriculum and some do not. But we certainly do not have anything comprehensive, current, or well defined.

This is just a tiny sampling of the amazing resources teachers in  Basin City have that our Pasco teachers would love to get their hands on.

Are teachers involved in the curriculum adoption process? Can you explain how that process works?

District Policy and state law outline specific requirements for an Instructional Materials Committee (IMC) that reviews and approves the recommendation from curriculum adoptions committees for all materials prior to school board adoption. The IMC is made up of teachers, principals, and members of the community. Members of this committee claim they have met less than once every other year for the past seven years.

Does PSD have a current curriculum used throughout K-12?  If not, is this against the law?  And if it is against the law, how can you file an injunction forcing our teachers back into the classroom while PSD is breaking the law as well?
 The District is not breaking the law. Just kidding, they are! They do not have a comprehensive k-12 curriculum and it is against the law. And probably causes significant and ongoing harm to all the children in Pasco School District that is very likely to last them well into adulthood and beyond. But, you know, strikes are bad and illegal and teachers, you go back to work now.

Does the district realize that the implementation and management of curriculum needs to be reviewed?
Yes.  The new leadership in curriculum and professional development fully recognizes that curriculum management and fidelity of implementation across the District is critical. Unfortunately this "new" leadership is the same old adorable Ms.Whitney who has been there for years. So why this is such a mess is a mystery.   PSD is claiming now that they can not clean up this mess until teachers are back in the class to tell them what they need. Unfortunately the teachers have already stated emphatically that they will not come back to class until they get firm contractual language that promises to address the curriculum problem. PSD refuses to give a firm commitment on this point of bargaining.

Will teachers get paid while on strike?
Probably. Teachers are paid year round. Any teacher with a contract to work for 180 school days this year can expect to get a paycheck each month as usual. However, PSD could be nasty and cancel pay checks if they are so inclined. This would be even more retaliatory than going after PAE's bargaining team in and of their own persons, but we're not ruling it out at this point. PSD probably isn't, either.

Can we go ahead and start school while PSD and PAE continue to bargain?
Yes, we could. But this would not be a good idea. More progress has been made at the bargaining table since the strike began  than has been made all summer. To go back to work now could easily result in the district's diminished desire to bargain. 

When is the last official date that classroom curriculum for Pasco elementary schools has been fully funded, by the District including teacher provided instruction/training?

Pasco School District has board-adopted and supplemental curriculum and instructional materials in all content areas.  Unfortunately supplemental material is all they have. But since there is nothing for it to supplement, this approach is like feeding your kid a vitamin and calling it dinner. PSD believes a “one size fits all” approach to curriculum does not work for all students with diverse learning needs, so instead they have adopted the "no size fits all" approach.

Is PSD currently run by a tiny robot living inside a human shaped suit?
No. This is just a rumor. We think.

"Do not... mention... the 'C' word to me..."

What role is WEA playing in the negotiations? Is this standard for these types of situations?
WEA and NAE send support to help local unions navigate the difficult legal matter of contract bargaining. Just as the district's bargaining team has a lawyer present (and several others on hand), the teacher's bargaining team (which is made up of regular classroom teachers) need legal council to advice them of their rights and responsibilities. This "outside" support exists in many negotiations throughout the state and those negotiations have been settled without incident.  It is in no way an indicator that something is wrong or that outside influences are dictating the outcome of negotiations.

Who is on the PAE bargaining team?
Matt Polk, a teacher from Pasco High School is the lead bargainer.  The team is made up of four local teachers who currently work full time in Pasco classrooms. Not an outside team, not an expensive law firm, local teachers. Also, PAE does not have a werewolf on their bargaining team, much to most teenage girls' disappointment.

Are both sides making compromises to their original positions?
Absolutely. Both sides have issues they are willing to bend on, and a few points on which they are not willing to bend. The two sides are actually quite close to a compromise. But some very important  pieces still need to be hammered out. Unfortunately the bargaining process was slowed this summer when PSD requested to only meet with a mediator present. This allowed for only a few days of bargaining over the summer. Now that the teams are able to meet every day, bargaining is going much quicker.

What can parents do?
Call your teachers. Ask how they are doing and what they need. Call the PSD bargaining team and let them know what it is you expect. Email your school board and ask them to please accept the teacher's invitation to meet at the bargaining table and get this settled. Pray. Injecting yourself with super-serum is a highly risky and not recommended path to getting this settled, but many are considering it at this point. We'd like to point out that without Vita-Ray saturation, the serum is unlikely to be effective. So please, for safety's sake, please stick with contacting the board and the bargaining team.

The school board has been invited to come to the bargaining team, but at this point have refused. Where are they when we need them most?