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Teachers for Sweetwater district face insurance cost hike
Susan- I would be ecstatic to teach 5 classes of 30 students. I teach 5 classes of English: 3 of them are in the high 30s, and one of them is a class of 41 9th graders. Every time I give an assignment, I have to grade 182 papers.— October 17, 2013 6:15 p.m.
Teachers for Sweetwater district face insurance cost hike
anniej- While I admire your commitment to revealing the deep corruption in the Sweetwater District, please do not admonish me or my colleagues for not attending school board meetings. You asked where we were on all those Monday nights? We are at home grading papers, making lesson plans, getting master's degrees, taking care of our homes and families, and worrying about the welfare of other peoples' children. You are an intelligent woman--you already know this. Sweetwater teachers are frustrated and discouraged. Brave community members rail against the district monthly and spend volunteer hours gathering data and composing well-developed arguments. Thank you for this work. But I am sure you can understand that Sweetwater is OUR EMPLOYER. Imagine for a moment how embarrassed we are. Imagine how much complete and total nonsense we have to put up with on a DAILY basis. This issue of breaking our contract and imposing NON-NEGOTIATED rate hikes is one straw of many. The problems in this district are making us figuratively and literally SICK. Everyday, in good faith, we arrive at schools across the South Bay because what we believe in most that we will NEVER give up on is the power of public education and the good lives that our students deserve. We might not have the energy to scream at the brick wall that is the current board (with one exception), but we do have the energy to do our best in our classrooms every single school day. In short, we are "hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." I believe you will see us on Monday--and when you do, stand with us. We will fight, just as we did for Prop 30 so our schools would be properly funded. We will fight, just as we did for Local Control Funding so we could help decide where our money should be spent to help our communities. This is the money Brand wants to control--he is holding our benefits hostage until we give him, through negotiations, the right to control ALL OF THE MONEY. We will NOT. Nor will we allow him to bully us out of what is contractually ours. We will fight. We always do.— October 17, 2013 5:58 p.m.