The Power is Yours!

It's lonely at the top.

It's a phrase people say all the time. But until you've been at the top, you don't realize just how true it is.
We mostly spend our lives somewhere in the middle looking up and thinking "Those people at the top have it so good" or "I could do so much better if I were in charge." Unfortunately, once you get to the top, you realize how difficult it is to be there. The work is hard, and people are harder.

So I wanted to give a special shout out to those who have recently been at the top. Consider this my e-card to the former PAE bargaining team and president.

Your sacrifice is not for nothing. Your thankless work has meaning whether people realize it or not. When people attack the work you've done, they are not attacking you.  Really. You worked hard. You created a good contract. In the end, members decided it wasn't quite what they wanted.  And that's okay. Every team before you has had similar near misses, and every team after you will too.  You did the job while it was yours, and you can take pride in what you created. Now the job belongs to someone else. Such is the nature of leadership.

It still hurts though.  It really does.

I get it.

People attack me all the time. Fortunately I'm not a real person, so I don't have any real feelings to hurt.

But you are real people, and you do have real feelings. When people voice opinions about the contract, they probably don't realize how personal that feels to you. However, if you are going to survive this storm, you've got to be able to separate yourself from what people say about your work. Don't let your frustration over this event sour all other opportunities in front of you.

Today someone else is at the top, and you have a choice (we all do really). You can either tear them down in an effort to get back at all those you believe have wronged you, or you can build them up and treat them the way you wish you had been treated. You may not be at the top right now (though these things have a way of cycling back), but you still have the power to choose.

Choose well.

Bargaining 101

I have to admit, I'm a little embarrassed. I didn't think this conversation was necessary. I really, really thought you already knew. I guess I just assumed they covered this at school. And now that I have to bring it up, it feels awkward.

It's time we had "The Talk."

Before you all start experimenting on your own, I think it's best that you understand how a contract is created. I'd rather you learn to bargain safely, than side bargain with your friends and wind up with unintended consequences.

When a government bureaucracy and a collective bargaining unit love each other very much, sometimes they decide to come together and create a tentative agreement.

All different types of organizations do it basically the same way, but there are some differences, so I'm going to focus specifically on how teachers make a contract.

I know, I know, you're totally grossed out right now thinking about  PAE and PSD alone together behind closed doors. But I promise it's a perfectly natural process, and the better you understand it, the less scary it will be.

Let's start at the beginning.

As a teachers union, you have elected certain people to represent you, like your president and vice-president. You also have a set ofrules or constitution by which you govern yourselves. These are the rules that you have chosen to abide by. Included in these rules is the fact that your president can appoint a team to bargain on your collective behalf. This is known as your bargaining team. They are typically in place months (or even years) before your old contract expires.

Not all teams can be as cool as your bargaining team.

During the year leading up to a new contract being formed, your bargaining team along with many other volunteers will conduct a series of one-on-one interviews. Some of you may remember last spring when teachers came to your building to speak with you during your lunch break or planning time. They asked you questions about what you like about your job and what changes would help make your work even better. It's not a perfect system, but the one-on-one team tries to meet with as many teachers as possible to get specific, personal feedback. During this time, any teacher (or counselor or school psychologist) who is a member of PAE is welcome to contact the president and/or the bargaining team with concerns.

(Unfortunately, teachers are demanding to be heard right now, when they should have spoken up months ago. This isn't the time to start making demands. We're nine months into this pregnancy, you can't decide now you only want a son.)

After the one-on-one interviews are complete, a "Discernment" is created. This is where all the comments are compiled and themes are noted. This is a very long document and may include things like "24 teachers were concerned about lost planning time due to the shortage of substitute teachers, 84 teachers are struggling to get print-shop orders back on time, and 1 teacher insists we put a Ferris wheel in the teachers' parking lot." This document is used as a guide for the bargaining team to know what issues are of most importance to teachers. It is also sent to the superintendent so that she is aware of what issues will need to be addressed (it is also sent to WEA to double check for things like bias, etc, and to help locals compile data in a meaningful and accurate way).

When the time comes, the union will "Demand to Bargain" with the district. The two teams decide on a time and place where they can meet privately (this privacy thing is important, and we'll come back to that later). If all goes well, both sides will come ready to bargain, and that is when the magic happens!

The two sides will bring a contract proposal. They will look at each other's proposals and try to find common ground. There will be a back and forth dance as each party gives a little and takes a little. This may include the use of "supposals." Unlike a "proposal" which is generally a full contract, a supposal is a small portion of language within a proposed contract that basically says, "Suppose we gave up this thing here-- do you suppose you'd be willing to give us this other thing over here?"

After months of courtship, the two teams eventually reach a tentative agreement or "TA."  This is a fetal contract that both sides believe is agreeable.  The union's bargaining team then brings this TA to the executive board for a stamp of approval, after which the team brings it to the members for a vote.

Look at my proposal! It's so colorful and feathery!

If the members like the TA, and they vote to approve it, it becomes ratified and is well on its way to becoming a viable contract capable of surviving outside the bargaining womb. This is the end we are all hoping for.

But it doesn't always work out. Sometimes the members don't like it. Sometimes it gets voted down. Actually it happens a lot. It may be that the bargaining team was way out of touch and the whole contract stinks. But more than likely the contract is pretty darn good, and there are just a few things that people were unhappy with that still need tweaking. Unfortunately the contract must be voted on as a whole, so there is no easy way to know exactly why people voted no.

When a TA is voted down, all is not lost. The two teams simply go back to the bargaining table and keep working. Think of it as false labor. You may have thought the baby was coming, but it's gonna be a few more days (or even weeks).

#stillpregnant #falselaborsucks

Sounds simple right? But there are some places where things can go quite wrong.

Let's go back to the topic of privacy. Transparency is good right? Everyone wants more transparency.  It seems PSD is constantly posting updates while PAE isn't. Why? Is PAE hiding something?

Let's imagine you were buying a house and you had 1400 children.  Ouch!

Move over Duggars, we've got you beat!

Your realtor takes you around and shows you a dozen houses each with their own unique benefits and drawbacks.  Your teenagers  love the house with the big basement (they're thinking big party!). Your spouse is in love with the house that has the giant kitchen with double ovens and a walk-in pantry. Personally you don't care what the house looks like, you just want the one with the big garage and air conditioned shop. Despite all these amazing bonuses you could be enjoying, you've got a nagging feeling in the back of your mind that you ought to buy the house that has the huge fenced-in yard so your littlest kids can have a safe place to play.

Each of these houses are amazing, and they are all certainly better than the two bedroom apartment the 1402 of you are currently sharing.  Any of these choices would be wonderful. But now that everyone has seen ALL the different options, they all want different things. Now no matter what incredible house you choose, someone is going to be unhappy. They caught a glimpse of what was possible, and now nothing less will satisfy.

That's what public bargaining is like for PAE. There are hundreds of members each with unique needs. PSD is simply an organization. They have no personal needs, and the agreed upon contract will not affect anyone on the PSD bargaining team individually. They essentially have no dog in this race. But we've got 1400 dogs, and they're all hungry.

We're hungry! Hungry for a fair contract!

That's why PSD keeps posting every little update. They want you to be jealous and fight with each other.  They have nothing to lose. But PAE has everything to lose. Every time a member demands to know where we are at in negotiations, they are undermining the entire process. If you knew every topic that was ever discussed, you would be forever sad thinking about what you missed. Instead, wait for a TA to be posted and then see all the positive benefits you have to gain.

The best kind of prize is a surprise!

Does that mean you're blindly following and taking whatever we're given? NOPE. Not at all. It means you are patient and wait to make up your mind about a contract until you actually have a contract to make up your mind about.

Remember, only the bargaining teams are allowed to bargain. You have a team bargaining for you. They go to the district bargaining team and make requests on your behalf. It is inappropriate for you to go to members of the other team and make requests or offers (or even give opinions). It's called side bargaining, and it is in violation of good faith bargaining practices. If you have an opinion on what you want to see happen in this contract, or what you are willing to vote for, that should have been expressed long ago to your bargaining team. That's like trying to get on the field after the teams already been drafted. It just doesn't work that way, no matter how great a player you are.

You're on the sidelines, Buddy. You aren't going to play in this game.

(Right now teachers are going to the district's bargaining team and telling them what they will and won't accept in a contract. That isn't the place to air your concerns. That's like going behind your partner's back and talking to the doctor about finding a sperm donor. Not cool!)

This is where unity comes in. The whole point of having a union is so that you can bargain collectively. You have to trust your team to bargain for you. You have to support others and be happy for the gains they receive in their contract (even when you don't get everything you want).
Janus is changing everything.  Your membership numbers are in serious jeopardy. If people don't feel like the union is valuable to them, they can and will leave. Every time you attack other teachers publicly or undermine your leaders, you punch another hole in the union life raft, so you had better learn to play nice.

Now some of you are asking yourselves right now Why does this person think they can give us advice? They're not even a teacher. They obviously don't have all the facts" 

It's true, I don't have all the facts. Neither do you. But at least I understand the rules, and now hopefully you do too.

If you understand how bargaining works, not only are you more likely to be able to make your voice heard, but you'll be less frustrated by the whole process in general.

And when a good contract does come along (and it certainly will) you won't have regrets about the ugly things you did and said while you were bringing this contract into the world.

Now put away your black tee-shirts, put on some scrubs, and get ready to catch this baby because she is coming soon!






The community is watching.

My Ears Are Burning

Ciao amici. Come va?

I've just returned from the most yummy little vacation in Venice. Italy is such a charming little country, and totally the perfect place to shake off my adulting blues. It can be such a downer living here in realsville. Ya know? Sometimes I just have to get away.

But while I was lying on a nude beach soaking up my daily vitamin D, I got a most distressing phone call.

Pasco is in trouble.

And it's my sworn duty to help.

So here I am ready to help. But what's the problem?


In a word: Teachers.

Teachers are the problem.

I know! I was surprised too!

Remember after the strike when everyone held hands and sang Kumbaya? Yeah, those were good times. But nothing lasts forever, and unfortunately it's human nature to be unhappy. And right now there are some teachers in Pasco who are choosing to be really unhappy.

And that's okay I guess.

Except they aren't just happy being unhappy; they want to make everyone else unhappy too.

This summer the Pasco Association of Educators and the Pasco School District have been bargaining a new contract (not a big deal, they do this about every two years, except it is a REALLY big deal because the state just changed everything about the way teacher salaries are being paid so there is a super crap ton of things that need negotiated). In July, the two bargaining teams reached what they believed was a good agreement, so they took it to the members for a vote. As it turns out, the teachers didn't feel like it was a great contract after all. They voted 4:1 against the proposed contract, and asked their team to go back to the table and keep bargaining.

No biggee.  It's happened before, and it will happen again. But they've got all summer. I'm sure they'll come to an agreement soon. Just keep trying.

But it was a biggee to some of the teachers in the minority. Some of those teachers who got outvoted 4:1 were really, REALLY angry.

So angry in fact that they started bad-mouthing the other 80%. A lot. In public. To the other team. Normally saying mean things about other people is okay because that's what the internet is for! We're all used to it by now.
Thanks trolls.

But in a union, things are different. There are rules.

You aren't supposed to talk bad about each other; you're supposed to be united.

You aren't supposed to go to the other team and talk bad about your team; you're supposed to be united.

You aren't supposed to actively work against people in your union; you're supposed to be united.

Are you sensing a theme here?

UNITED!

Like one great big Red Rover team!

*time out*
Can I tell you a secret? As a general rule, I don't actually like unions. My parents are republicans. Shhhh!! Don't tell anyone. But whether I like them or not, unions exist, they have rules, and by joining PAE the majority of teachers in Pasco have agreed to abide by them. This post isn't a love letter to unions. This post is a love letter to integrity. I just wanted you to know that before you brush me off as just another thug-loving union kisser.

*time in*

Teachers, I'm looking at you.

You need to be united. For your own sake, for the sake of the children, and for our whole community. You're making Pasco look bad. You're making yourselves look bad. You chose to join the union (it is NOT mandatory), so if you are going to be part of the union, you'd darn well better act united.

I'm not saying you can't disagree, and I'm not saying you can't try to persuade people to your opinion. In fact, I recommend disagreement and persuasion on a daily basis. But have some integrity and do it the right way.

If you find yourself on the minority side of a vote, work with your teammates to change minds and hearts. Or maybe, you could take a look in the mirror and try to figure out why you are in the minority. Is there something everyone else knows that you missed?  Just because you don't like the head coach's game plan doesn't mean you should run to the other team's dugout and start giving away your team's signals. You can't win that way. (BTW shout out to the tri-city's baseball team killing it in the Little League World Series right now. Way to represent!)

My point is, don't be a poor loser. Public attacks won't help you win. Not only does it make you look childish and small, it actually accomplishes nothing. If you think the majority is misguided, use logic an persuasion to try and win them over. Work within the bounds of the union that you, yourself, joined.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some jet-lag to catch up on.




But wait! I didn't tell you what's in the contract, or who is right, or what you should do.
Yeah, that was on purpose. I'm not a teacher. I'm just a figment of your imagination. I can't tell you what to do. It's not my contract. I don't have to live with it. You do.  You have to read and talk and think. You elected your union president and gave him the power to appoint a team to bargain on your behalf. So ask yourself "Do you trust the man you elected to do the job you've given him?" Trust democracy, and have faith in yourselves.

I want a pony, a pretty pony, with long hair that never gets tangled, and I don't want my pony to poop or smell weird or ever have flies, and I want it to be easy to ride, but super fun and fast and jump high and win races and, and, and

Sad fact of life #2155
The ideal and the real do not always exist in the same world.

In a perfect world children would always do their homework and chores without being asked.


In a perfect world cars would run on happy thoughts and gummy bears would rain down from heaven.

In a perfect world I could eat cupcakes for breakfast and still wear skinny jeans.

Sadly the world is not perfect, and we don't always get what we want simply because what we want doesn't always exist.

One such example of this type of illusive unicorn is "The Perfect Curriculum."   We all want a curriculum that is fun and easy to teach, prepares students for state assessments AND real life,  is loved by students and teachers alike, is cutting edge but still user friendly and intuitive, and is affordable enough to appeal to our tax base. That'd be ideal right?

But let's get real.

Fourteen months ago you, the parents and teachers and community members, did something amazing. You forced the hand of a reluctant school district and got them to commit to purchasing new curriculum for ALL our students in ALL subject areas. That was amazing!

You got them to do something they hadn't done in decades. Congratulations!  So everything is perfect now right?  Teachers are all happy. They got what they wanted. Everything is sunshine and roses now. Our test scores are on the rise. The teacher shortage is over. And we never have to worry about anything ever again. Right?

Right?

Not exactly.

Okay.... this may come as a shock to you... but not everyone is 100% happy. 

The curriculum we purchased isn't perfect.  
I know that may be hard for some of you to hear. But it's the truth, and I think we need to talk about it.

First of all there is no such thing as perfect curriculum.  There's that pesky reality again. 

AKA: Zoloft

There are all different types of teachers and all different types of learners, so no curriculum is going to be an exact perfect fit for everyone. There is no silver bullet.  We are dealing with all types of monsters here, so we're going to need silver bullets, and wooden stakes, and garlic necklaces, and cups of water (ya know, for those aliens in Signs, with Mel Gibson, those were super scary). 

So let's start by accepting the fact that no one product will be loved by everyone. A teacher who has been at this game for 30+ years is going to have a lot different style than a teacher who is brand new and strait outta college.

The good news is, for those teachers who were happy making everything up all by themselves, they can still do that if they they really want to. But for those poor new teachers (of which we have hundreds) who were trying to teach without any materials and who have no teaching experience, having a curriculum to teach from is like receiving manna from heaven. So essentially we've given an amazing gift to some, without really hurting others.

Which brings us to our next epiphany. Not everyone is going to feel equally grateful for new curriculum because not everyone was equally hungry for it.  

If we had a thousand people in a room, and five hundred of them were starving (and had been starving for over twenty years), we could all agree that was a problem worth addressing. The district's solution to this problem was first to deny that anyone was starving at all. They then said EVERYONE was starving and it was too expensive to feed them all. Then they suggested we do a needs assessment to study the people for a year to find out who was and was not starving. The teachers refused to accept any of these options and said, the time for talking is over, let's just get these people fed!  So they hastily bought food for all one thousand people. 

I don't remember ordering broccoli!

 It is good food. It is nutritious food. But not everyone is going to enjoy the food the same way. Obviously the people who were starving will love finally getting to eat.  But some of the less hungry people may be saying to themselves,"I don't like this flavor. I liked my old food." 

The good news is we fed all the people!  Or in this case we acquired (or are in the process of acquiring) curriculum for all. Just because people have varying levels of enthusiasm about it doesn't mean they are unhappy with it or that it was a bad choice.  It just means they are still adjusting.

And they aren't just adjusting to new curriculum, they are adjusting to to a whole new style of teaching (AKA Common Core). We have never had common core aligned curriculum in Pasco before. That means as our kids have lined up to take the state assessments, they have never been properly prepared for them.  This new curriculum will hopefully change that. Hopefully the style of instruction and assessment will more closely mirror the assessments our students must pass in order to graduate. It's a lot less memorization of facts and a lot more critical thinking. That means more work for teachers and students alike. And like a plate of vegetables, it may not be easy to swallow, but in the long run it will be good for us.

Change is hard.  Even change we WANT to have happen is hard.  It just is. This is a year of growing pains. And next year will be too. That's not a sign that something is wrong, that's a sign a growth.  And if there is one thing we are familiar with here in Pasco, it's GROWTH!

So as you talk to your children and their teachers about how they are liking the new curriculum, remember it's not a magic pony that never poops and has tangle-free hair. It's just a set of books. 

And books aren't a lifetime commitment. This may be hard for us to understand in Pasco since we've had the same books for eternity here, but they are meant to be used and replaced. We aren't married to these books. We're just dating right now. In a couple of years if it doesn't work out, we can break up, and start dating a new curriculum. And with each new relationship we will get better at knowing ourselves and what we are looking for in a long term educational relationship.

Selecting curriculum is a skill we've never had the pleasure of practicing until now. With each new curriculum adoption, we'll get better. And our kids will be better off because of it.




P.S.If you need a quick laugh, check out one of our school board members suggesting we give all the librarians a round of applause for getting the new curriculum ready for all of our schools. The school board video is RIGHT HERE and it starts at about the 10:30 mark.  Now I'm not suggesting that librarians don't deserve a thank you. They sure do. But it's a strange sentiment from the same people who took legal action against the teachers who were fighting so hard to get that very same curriculum that we are now cheering about.

The Real Face of the Evil Union

In one form or another, most people have pretty strong opinions about unions. They either love them or hate them.

Behold, the evil UNION!

The Union: guardian of the little people.

As soon as contract negotiations caught the public's attention this summer, people (and by "people" I mean PSD and their ever forth coming Q & A  messages) began shouting these warnings:



"We don't want the union taking over our schools."

"The union wants to decide what books your children read."

"The union is using scare tactics to stir up public anger against the district."

"There is no problem with curriculum. The union has tricked the teachers into striking."

"The union is trying to make an example of PSD as part of a national power grab."

"The union has taken over Pasco."

"The union ate my baby."

Eventually things settled down. The district agreed to resolve the curriculum issue, and teachers went back to work. That should have been the end of it.

But it wasn't.

Strangely enough, there are still board members bemoaning the evils of the union. Still.  Now it'd be one thing if an average uninformed citizen was spouting off about how unions are the devil. But a board member isn't just anybody. They are elected to represent the public and inform decision making at the highest level of the school district. So when board members (yes, more than one) talk about he union like it's some type of evil boogie man, that is something worth noticing.

Is the union the root of all evil in Pasco? Has the union been sent by the devil himself to stir up contention and unrest? I decided to take a closer look at see exactly what kind of devil we are up against here in Pasco.

Behold, the face of EVIL!

The evil union in all it's might!

Ahhhhh!!!!

Pretty hideous right? I mean could anything be more frightening than a smiling, young woman wearing mittens and a mid-calf length skirt, spending her free time out on the street corner encouraging voters to support a school levy?  GROSS!

What about these monsters?

Wow, showing up to work and pretending to be happy. What Creeps!

Attending a community prayer meeting and praying with school board members.
Where does this kind of scum even come from? Seriously!

Oh gross! Not more levy supporters. These monsters just don't know when to quit.

So are unions really evil? The fulfillment of prophecy sent to usher in the apocalypses?

?????

Here's the thing about things: they are just things.
Things aren't good or evil, they just are. A blanket isn't inherently good or evil. It can do good things, like warm you up when you are cold. It can do bad things, like transmit disease to susceptible populations. A blanket is just a blanket. It's what you do with it that matters.

A union is just a union. They aren't inherently bad or good. The people in them may do bad or good things. But the thing itself is just a thing.

So let's not talk anymore about whether unions are good or bad (let the politicians duke that one out). Instead let's talk about whether PAE (the Pasco Association of Educators) is good or bad.  Let's judge it by who is in it and what they do.

Well, we all know who is in it. Teachers. These loving, smiling, amazing people who take care of our children every day, and who even take time outside of the classroom to fight for what's best for our kids (even if it's so cold you need mittens).

And what has PAE done? I mean besides come to work every day ready to do their best to love and teach our children and prepare them for the world ahead of them?

• They participated in a number of activities including a state-wide walk out in hopes of persuading our legislator to fully fund our schools and stop over-testing our children.
• They shed a giant spotlight on Pasco's atrocious lack of curriculum forcing the district to finally take action on an issue they've been avoiding and denying for more than a decade. Although the district continued to try and persuade teachers with money, the union held strong and refused to return to work until the district agreed to a contract that included books for all children, in all grades, in all subjects.
• They worked side by side with parents to help pass a much needed levy.
• They demanded (and are getting) much needed repairs to schools such as New Horizon's High School, as well as getting hot water back on in the bathrooms at Pasco High.
• They fought to keep the heater running in the winter and the air conditioner running in the spring in classrooms where children were being forced to learn in nearly uninhabitable classrooms (yeah, that really happened).
• They have been strong advocates fighting for safe and age appropriate playgrounds for students.
• They are continuing to fight the district on a number of issues including using our children for guinea pigs to line the pockets of researchers (Literacy Squared) and to fight illegal hiring practices that can lead to huge disparity in quality between schools (like when administrators narrowly tailor job listing in order to hire their unqualified friends instead of hiring actual teachers with job appropriate qualifications).

So the next time you find yourself face to face with that awful scary evil union, be sure to thank them.  After you, they are your child's greatest advocate. They are our partners in educating our community. 

So to all my friends in PAE, thank you.

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