Seattle Schools Community Forum: From A Seattle Scohols Teacher's POV

Seattle Schools Community Forum: From A Seattle Scohols Teacher's POV:

 From A Seattle Scohols Teacher's POV

SEA member...Elspeth Travani and her Facebook post:

First of all, it is clear to me from talking with people at the pickets that striking is emotionally difficult for many of us. There is a lot of uncertainty, rumors fly, and information is hard to come by.

What is happening:  
The chief negotiators on both sides are meeting several times a day with the mediators. The SEA team has not been called back to the table, because the district has made no further concessions, and the package proposal they offered was untenable. We are meetingtomorrow morning at 9:00 AM to debrief, strategize, etc. If the district is beginning to feel the mounting pressure as Monday draws closer, we might be called in to actual full-team negotiationstomorrow afternoon. I'll be happy to let you know how it goes, but don't expect to hear anything until late on Saturday, or perhapsSunday morning, as we may be there late.

WHAT ARE WE STRIKING FOR?

The major obstacle as I see it is NOT our raises. We are not hugely far apart on the raise at this point, and my feeling is that that difference can be bridged over a few more tough hours of wrangling.

MAJOR OBSTACLE NUMBER ONE: The longer day. I'm am going to paste in here what I put on Facebook about that, and I urge you to repost it. We need the community to push the school board so we can end this strike:

The board wants a longer student day. They put this on the table on August 17th. This is a complex issue - more is not always better.
- How will teachers be impacted?
-Are K-1 kids going to be guaranteed 45 minutes of recess if they are at school later?
-Are high school teachers going to be asked to teach a 7 period day (6 out of 7 periods rather than 5 out of 6?)
-Are PE, Art and Music teachers going to be asked to teach longer periods or more sections? (Some would like longer periods, but more sections would be Seattle Schools Community Forum: From A Seattle Scohols Teacher's POV: