Still worth fighting for?

My dearest friends,

I hope this letter finds you well. I must admit, I have not felt quite like myself lately.

Some outrageous news came out this week.

News so big it should blow your mind!

Information that ought to make every citizen of Pasco storm the Booth building with torches and pitch forks (PLEASE DON'T REALLY STORM THE BUILDING, THIS IS JUST A FIGURE OF SPEECH!).

If you haven't heard, the big news is the school board's action plan for dealing with the strike.  It's not really NEWS since it was written and signed by our board members way back in May. It's not really NEWS because it has been publicly referenced by board members since September. But it is news in that only a few people were paying attention before. So while it's not NEW, it is still news to us.

I will attach the document for you to read in its entirety, but for those who'd like a quick summary let me highlight a few key points.

The school board met with a consultant this spring who coached them through the process of dealing with a strike. So any pretense they may have made about being surprised that teachers were striking is a lie.

As a result of that meeting, the school board wrote and signed an agreement back in the spring about how they would deal with contract negotiations. So the idea that they were bargaining in good faith is a lie.

The school board had a plan in place to try to pit parents against teachers and make them selves look good in the eyes of the media. So any pretense that they wanted to do what was best for children is a lie.

The school board agreed that the only reason teachers would ever go on strike is for money and so no other issues were worth negotiating. THE SCHOOL BOARD DECIDED IN MAY THAT THEY KNEW THAT TEACHERS ONLY WANTED MONEY AND NOTHING ELSE. They agreed that they would keep offering teachers more money and ignore their other requests because they were sure that any other "soft" issue (like curriculum) were just a cover up for what the board believed was the real issue (money). So any notion that they were listening to teachers and trying to really understand them and come to an agreement was a lie.

With this knowledge the negotiations make a lot more sense.  The district decided teachers only wanted money. So they offered them money. Teachers said no. So the district offered them more money. And the teachers said no. So the district offered them even more money. And the teachers said no. And then the district said, "See! Those teachers are so greedy! No matter how much money we throw at them, it's never enough."

But of course it's not enough. No amount of money could make a teacher say, "Thanks! My students don't need curriculum after all."

They set us up.
They set up the bargaining team.
They set up the teachers.
They set up the parents.
And most disgraceful of all, they set up our kids.

They decided how this was going to play out long before negotiations began, and then they sat back and watched it happen. We begged them to step up and be the leaders we needed, and they did nothing. And when people raised concerns about the damage being done to our community, they said, "Don't worry, we hired a consultant to help heal the community after the strike."  And when teachers started fleeing to other districts, they said, "Don't worry, it's natural to lose teachers after a strike. We've been expecting this."

They expected it.
Of course they expected it! They planned it. They forced it into reality. Then they sat back and watched it.
THEN THEY PATTED THEMSELVES ON THE BACK FOR PREDICTING THE FUTURE!!!

This ought to be on the news.  People on the board and in the Booth ought to be resigning out of shame. We ought to be shouting in the streets demanding a recall.

But it's not.
They are not.
We are not.

Instead we are whispering to our neighbors, "Did you read that?" and "Can you believe that?"  It is so big and so important and so awful that as a community we almost can't handle it. We are still grieving. We are still in shock. We are still in denial.

In truth I feel paralyzed by sadness and completely overwhelmed by the enormity of this revelation.

And I guess that's why I'm writing this to you now. I need your help. I really really need your help.
Normally I'm full of ideas. I gladly tell people who to talk to, where to send letters, who to vote for, when to rally, when to sit down, when to speak softly, when to carry a big stick.

But not today.

Today I feel very very alone.

The district that teaches our children, the district that professes to love our teachers, the district that claims they want to heal our community has deceived us.

Over the past few months I have raised my voice for change because I believed Pasco was worth fighting for. I believed things could change. I believed we could do better. But today.... today I just don't know.  Today I want to throw in the towel.

So dear friends, I am asking you for another favor. Today I'm not asking you to write the school board. I'm not asking you to vote. I don't care about your letter to the editor or your comments at the next board meeting. Today what I need from you is a reason to keep fighting.

Please.
Please tell me why it is that you are all still here.
Why haven't you quit yet?
Give me a reason to stay.
Please.



Sincerely dismayed,

Alice