Chalking one up for the teachers

A memory long forgotten showed up Tuesday.

It was right after a reader sent me a note saying that teachers and classroom support workers would be protesting outside the Citrus County School Board meeting over a collective bargaining dispute.

Wow. Been quite a few years since teachers and the district administration bickered over contract language or pay raises. While Just Wright Citrus isn’t really the forum for teacher contract debates, I decided to check it out.

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There’s a better than even chance I’ll screw up the facts if I explain the contract issues. I learned a long, long time ago that school district stuff is extremely complicated and trying to simplify it often makes things worse.

So, here’s the Citrus County Education Association website. It explains the issue better than I.

Basically, it’s a small pay raise combined with a hefty increase in health insurance premiums. Many teachers and aides would see a net drop in their paychecks. There are other issues as well.

Several teachers implored School Board members to understand their challenges: Low pay, increased mandates, unending paperwork, combative parents, and unruly students.

Many of these teachers attended Citrus County Schools as children, or their parents taught in the schools. They graduated, went to college, and returned to teaching in the very classrooms they were taught. That hometown dedication is impressive.

Teaching is an honorable profession. To longtime teachers, those days are fleeting.

“There’s no one beating down our doors anymore,” one teacher said.

They’re exhausted. Feeling under-appreciated.

Teachers, cops, and preachers are among the most dedicated people on earth to their profession. Everything these teachers said was true, but even the ones on the brink know they won’t leave. They can’t. Teaching is ingrained in their soul.

Watching Tuesday, it seems the School Board and Superintendent Scott Hebert want to work this out.

Memory time:

We’re going back over 40 years to my early days at the Pioneer in Big Rapids, Michigan. Contract dispute in the school district reached an impasse. Teachers went on strike. The School Board met in an emergency session in a packed auditorium.

Our photographer came back with such a killer photo, there’s no way we’d run it. The photo was of a woman in the audience, a look of intense anger on her face, wearing a button that said: “Fire the bastards.”

I think of that whenever Citrus County teachers and the district mix it up. Man, we are not even close to that kind of adversarial relationship here. A little bit of rhetoric and some finger-pointing, and that’s about it. Thank goodness.

After the teachers said their piece, the School Board attorney warned board members not to talk about it, since they’re the ones who could decide the dispute.

That didn’t stop them from assuring teachers they’re the priority.

“My children are great because of you guys,” board member Thomas Kennedy said.

By the way, this brought up another memory as well: Covering collective bargaining sessions.

See, the media often plays copycat. If Johnny writes about jumping off the Empire State Building, I need to write about jumping off the Empire State Building. Never liked that approach, though editors felt it necessary so that readers wouldn’t think we’re missing news.

That’s why you’d get four reporters from four newspapers covering boring government meetings.

Well, St. Pete Times reporter Barbara Behrendt (an absolute superstar in Citrus County education writing) covered the teachers’ union collective bargaining session. Which means I covered them as well for the Chronicle.

If you’re thinking, “My, that sounds dull and a waste of valuable reporter time,” you’d be correct! Don’t get me wrong. These bargaining sessions worked fine for the participants. As news stories go, they were losers with a capital L.

(Topped only by years of covering the Citrus County Hospital Board’s dispute with Citrus Memorial Hospital. The worst reporter days of my life. Yikes. I’m getting cold sweats just thinking about it.)

Let’s hope Citrus County teachers get the contract they’re looking for, or at least one that doesn’t break the bank. And, if they haven’t heard it yet today, a hearty thanks for our teachers. You guys and gals are the best.

That’s it for Wednesday. Have a great one, friends.

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