Aloha Colleagues,
I would like to thank the over 3000 of you who have taken the time to respond to our calendar survey and have left almost 5000 thoughtful and passionate comments about the structure of the school calendar. I have heard your genuine concerns regarding the unsafe heat conditions that many of you continue to endure with your students. I have also heard your need for breaks throughout the year to relieve stress, to participate in professional development, and to get personal business done that doesn’t require leaving your students in the hands of substitutes. Each and every member has their own unique view on how best to structure the school calendar.
On October 6th, the DOE will present to the Board of Education’s Student Achievement Committee their calendar proposals for the next three years.
That committee will then make a recommendation to the full Board of Education for action at their General Business Meeting on October 20th.
As your union leader, it is my job to advocate for our shared interests, but this is difficult to do when there is no consensus amongst our members. One belief we do have in common, as 71% of you expressed in the survey, is the desire to retain Fall Break. Fortunately, the DOE now agrees and has maintained the one-week Fall Break in their proposals. The more difficult question is whether to advocate for a two- or three-week Winter Break. Those who responded to the survey are split practically right down the middle. In the end, the best solution is to compromise and advocate for a Winter Break that is between two and three weeks long.
The most passionate responses had to do with starting the school year in September. Many of you validly feel that school should not be held during one of the hottest months of the year (August) and should be more aligned to schools on the mainland which start later. On the other hand, we know that teachers are not very well paid and many of you have to live paycheck to paycheck and work second and third jobs just to get by. I wanted to be upfront with you in the survey by letting you know the impact a later start date would have on the pay cycle. Right now, most teachers are paid starting on August 20th of the current year through to August 5th of the next year. Starting school in September would delay the start of the new cycle, likely to September 20th. This would result in most of you having to go without a paycheck on August 20th and September 5th. I know that for many of you this would be too heavy a burden to bear.
As a whole, we are faced with the difficult decision between having you teach in hot classrooms or having you go without pay for an extended period. Neither of those are pleasant choices. Over 70% of respondents to the survey said that the school calendar should not be used as a heat abatement strategy. The reality is that teachers and students should have air conditioning for hot classrooms regardless of when the school year starts and ends and HSTA is working on your behalf to make that happen.
Read: AC Plan Update
I encourage you to submit testimony to the Board of Education, which is holding meetings on October 6th and 20th. The HSTA will also be at the Board of Education meetings to share our concerns, results of the survey and our own ideas to improve the proposed calendars. Please note that the October 20th Board of Education meeting will begin at 5:00 pm so that more of the community can participate.
I hope to see you there and thank you again for providing valuable feedback through the survey.
Corey Rosenlee
HSTA President
Resource links from this message:
Link to Survey Results
Link to BOE Agenda
Link to DOE Proposed Calendars
Link to submit testimony to the BOE
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment