Teacher Summer
If we took a teacher poll of our favorite day of the year, hands down the last day of school would be in the top five. That blast of wind you feel on the last day of school is the collective exhaling of teacher breath. Another year down. Time for some rest and relaxation. Finally spending quality time with friends and family, vacations, tackling those chores that have been piling up. And sleeping! I don’t know about you, but it takes me one solid week to decompress, and about three weeks before the anxiety of beginning a new school year begins.
Where I teach, in New York City, our school year finishes the end of June and starts up again right after Labor Day in September. It’s in our contract.
This has been a particularly contentious end of school year season. Our contract expired last year. Our union (United Federation of Teachers) has been in negotiations with the city. Rumors abounded. The mayor will refuse to negotiate a fair contract, our healthcare will change, they’ll offer 0% raises, etc.
After several twists and turns, our union announced they negotiated a Memorandum of Agreement. This was during our last week of school. We had until the last day of the year to vote. Yesterday, we received word that our members ratified the contract with a 75% yes vote.
Some members are happy with the contract. Some are angry. Many dissenters agree our new raises do not keep up with inflation. Folks also don’t trust our union due to secret healthcare givebacks they secretly negotiated in our last contract.
That being said, here’s a screenshot of the major items in our new contract. I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
How does your contract measure up? Drop me a line in my email.
In the meantime, GET SOME REST!
