Teachers contract I read your article about the teachers not ratifying their contract (Jan. 19, Tribune-Herald). I haven’t heard or read any mention of one important issue. ADVERTISING As you read, just for a moment put yourself in the position
Teachers contract
I read your article about the teachers not ratifying their contract (Jan. 19, Tribune-Herald). I haven’t heard or read any mention of one important issue.
As you read, just for a moment put yourself in the position of teachers who are affected by it, and ask yourself: “How would I feel?”
The article stated that years of service would be recognized in the new salary schedule. When I read this I thought, “Gee, how nice. The Department of Education will recognize all the teachers in the new contract.”
Well, folks, I hate to pop the bubble. Guess who gets left out of any pay increase (which, by the way, can’t really be called an increase)? We will go back to our 2009 salary and then add on a minimal 1 percent based on a good evaluation, but not until July 2013. We still have another 1 1/2 years of a 5 percent pay cut. Guess who doesn’t even get the 1 percent?
If you guessed those of us who are at the top of the schedule, because of our years of experience (I have 41) and because of the numerous post-graduate courses we have taken, you are right! This is the second time in a contract with the state that those of us with the highest classification have been “recognized.”
I conduct my classroom on the premise that fairness applies to everyone. If I were to run my class the way the DOE treats its teachers, there would be a lot of unhappy campers.
Yes, it’s true. Those who have dedicated the majority of their lives to education get nothing. Did I feel better when I read that new teachers will get a $2,500 bonus in addition to the 1 percent, based on a good evaluation? Is that telling me that no one cares what kind of evaluation I get?
Thankfully, our students appreciate us. There is nothing better than seeing the light go on in a student’s eyes, or watching the excitement they express when learning becomes fun, or hearing their cheers for each other when they pass their reading. But, that’s another story, and no one can take that away.
Mary Lou Griesser
Kapaau
Pharmacy drawing
I noticed in the recent artist’s rendering of the planned College of Pharmacy at the University of Hawaii at Hilo (“UHH pharmacy seeking $38M,” Jan. 27, Tribune-Herald) there is a pickup truck turning into the complex.
You would have to go out of your way to insert the truck, of course, but why add the three people who appear to be sitting on chairs in the back of it?
Diane Thornton
Hawaiian Paradise Park
