On the eve of Teacher Appreciation Week I stood behind a family in Target paying for their purchases. The dad held a handful of Target gift cards while the mom organized items in the cart as they came down the ramp. The sons were scrutinizing various packets of Pokemon cards. It took a little while to determine, with the store clerk’s help, which combination of gift cards had enough to cover the total.
When everything was paid up the dad turned to me and apologized for the wait.
“Oh, that’s okay. I just want to know which one of you is the teacher.”
He was clearly surprised. “Me. But how did you know?”
I patted my chest. “Retired teacher here. Those gift cards are gold, man.”
He smiled and they prepared to leave. As they walked away I remembered the important part.
“Thank you for teaching!”
*****
It’s Teacher Appreciation Week in Howard County. PTAs and individual families do so much every year to express appreciation for the professionals who nurture and lift up their kids. Special food, decorations, heart-felt notes and more will be seen from school to school, expressing gratitude and good will.
Teacher Appreciation Week comes at interesting time in the school year. The acrimonious budget battles with the Board are as over as they are going to be (for this year.) The end of the academic year is in sight. Everyone is exhausted.
What a lot of folks don’t fully understand is that the part of the budget that supports teacher compensation is separate. What is being offered to HCPSS teachers this year feels like an afterthought; negotiations are at an impasse. How can the most crucial component of what makes public education function - - teachers - - be the place where we expect to pick up the slack in a bad budget year?
Somehow it is assumed that our teachers, many of whom must work multiple jobs to make ends meet, will quietly take what feels like a slap in the face from the people who should be the most knowledgeable and appreciative of their worth. It certainly doesn’t feel like Teacher Appreciation Week.
Teacher workload keeps increasing and the teaching experience has been deeply damaged by the impact of cell phones and social media on students, as well as the long-term impact of COVID-19 on the physical and mental health of everyone. To be blunt: teaching in 2024 is a far harder job to do than it used to be, and often far less emotionally rewarding, as well. The salaries offered are not commensurate with the weight that our teachers are carrying.
Parents and advocates, next week is Teacher Appreciation Week, and right now educators are not feeling very appreciated. While HoCo libraries and the Community College are (rightly) seeing 4-5% increases next year, the Board's "best" offer to their educators is 1%. While the Board and HCPSS talks about a multiyear strategy for their Zum bus contractor, they don't want a multiyear strategy for their own educators.
Here are the specifics, from HCEA, the Howard County Education Association:
After meeting with the Board's designees since November, we were informed by system leadership on May 1st that the Board of Education will not move from their initial financial offer of a step and 1% for next year. While surrounding districts rocket ahead to a starting salary of at least $60k next year, and while other county agency's are offering their employees 4-5% increases, the Board of Education's proposal would see our starting salaries fall behind neighboring counties, along with increases to class size and caseloads, layoffs, reductions of course offerings, cuts to custodial and building maintenance, and more.
What did our union offer? Our last offer to them was a 3-year agreement very similar to the one in Baltimore County. That would have allowed the Board to make no changes to their budget for compensation in Year 1 in exchange for increases in Years 2 and 3. They rejected that reasonable offer, even though the Blueprint will be providing over 30m in new revenues from the State in both FY26 and FY27.
The board is making multi-year agreements with Zum, but it won't make a multiyear investment in its own educators. We need 4 members of this Board to stand up and do the right thing and agree to a multi-year contract with educators, and we need you on May 9th at the Board of Education to show the board how appreciated Educators feel.
This recent article in the Banner relates the concerns of County Council members as to why the school system did not include adequate funding for teacher’s salaries in their budget request. It’s a good question.
Howard County Council members push school officials to keep pay competitive, Jess Nocera, Baltimore Banner
I see more and more teachers leaving the profession every year. These are really good teachers: experienced, dedicated, caring. Nationwide, the numbers show fewer young people are choosing education as their primary course of study. I wonder sometimes if people think there is a magic teacher machine that is going to crank out new ones to fill the gap.
Teachers, like any other human being in this world, need to be appreciated. The special efforts of school families this week with be received with sincere gratitude. By the same token, teachers need to be fairly compensated for their work, which is considerable.*
They’re asking that we add something to our good wishes this year: solidarity. How powerful it would be if we, as a community, could show up for our teachers the way they are always showing up for us.
What you can do: HCEA is inviting community members to turn out for this Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, May 9th.
Why: to show solidarity with teachers in their efforts to negotiate fair and adequate compensation.
When: The meeting is at four pm. You can start arriving from 3:30 onwards.
Can’t be there? A letter to the board of education helps, too.
*My husband is a teacher in the county schools. He had no part in the writing of this piece.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.