March

Tonight myself and 609 fellow employees and families had a march on our district office.  It was awesome!  It felt so great to be out there doing something a bit more tangible than wearing red every Tuesday.  (I can't complain red is my "signature color")  

I wrangled up Dan and the kids, and some hats, mittens, jackets, a

nd umbrellas, and we hit the streets of Covina!  We had a great time hanging out with the other people from my school.  All of the kids know each other from pre-school/day care, so they all had fun running around and playing together.  

We started out at a park about a quarter mile away from the district office.  We assembled there and collected our glow sticks, kazoos, and signs.  We then marched to the district office where the board was having their monthly meeting.  They did have the door propped open so hopefully they heard our chants: 

"2-4-6-8 settle now it's not too late!" and 

"What do we want? A contract! When do we want it? Now!"

It was great to be part of something like this, 

especially right before the national election!  Get's ya all riled up for it!  

*In case you have not heard the scoop on our district's woe's, here is the abbreviated version: The teachers in my district are without a contract.  We have not settled our contract from LAST YEAR. SO, we have been without a contract for over 14 months now.  The district is offering us nothing.  They are not agreeing to ANY of the union's proposals.  They will not even give us our Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA) which has already been funded by the state.  They are also wanting to put a cap on our health care costs so that I would end up having to suddenly pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for our health care plan.  Etc., etc., etc.

So far, we have been wearing red on Tuesdays, a button every day, and have passed out flyers to parents at back to school night and football games.  Finally I feel like we are doing something real.  

I pray it does not come to a strike.