A mediator is an odd back-and-forth thing. |
It had more to do with the letter of the law than anything else. It's really difficult to say much more about it. It was what we felt was a minor infraction - certainly not something that merited termination. |
The students were genuinely concerned about this. I was proud of the way they behaved themselves, not that I condone skipping school. The [state teachers' union] says you can bring in a 100 people and it won't make any difference, but I think it did last night. |
There are better ways of doing things than to just implement it on us. It hurt a lot of teachers that we couldn't compromise. For every one bad teacher you get several good ones. We don't want the collective bargaining changed for one bad teacher. |
This could go on for months if the school board appeals. Morale has been damaged but it's not irreparable. |
We are encouraged by the progress. It went miles further than it has in three years. We've been wanting to negotiate like this all along, with both sides resuming their responsibilities. |
We are here to teach. It's what we like to do -- it keeps us crazy and sane at the same time. |
We were really surprised. We were prepared to have the board terminate him, and we were quite relieved and surprised that they didn't. |
With their current offer the board is given the option of protecting themselves by rehiring every three years to avoid firing. We also want to protect experienced teachers. |