Contract Voting Poll

Count me as a NO, don't want an account to be attached to my personal information...

We must communicate this to all of our staff. There has been talk that this will be a close vote. We need to make a stand now and vote NO!. Elem. Middle and High schools need to be as one.

Just like nobody wants to be told to vote yes, please don't tell
others to vote no. We all get a vote.

WEAR RED TOMORROW AND EVERY FRIDAY UNTIL THIS THING IS OVER....

Count me as a YES vote. I understand the frustration with the salary situation as it is. I hope that everyone can consider the larger context though. VVSD teachers make more than others in surrounding areas. This is due to abnormally high raises in three consecutive years. We all benefited from that and our salary schedule now rests at a much higher level regardless of any future raises. We are being offered a $1,200 raise this year. With a step next year, our pay will go up about $800 more (if a step is about $2,000 total). So without insurance payments changing we are getting a $1,200 raise then an $800 raise. If you have to pay the $600 more in insurance, you will only be getting a $200 raise next year, which I understand is basically nothing. But that's a raise one year and a freeze the next at current salary levels well above surrounding districts. That also includes insurance benefits that most people don't have at a rate still far below what you would pay for insurance working anywhere else.

We need to also consider the reality of what a no vote means this time. The district doesn't have a secret pile of money stashed away. I'm curious what some people expect to be the outcome in terms of salary. A no vote could lead to arbitration or eventually a strike. In either case, our union doesn't have much to argue. Just because we would like more money doesn't mean that an arbitrator or especially the public will agree. In either scenario, the offers we have to choose from can become worse. The district doesn't need to keep adding to their offers. As we lose credibility and bargaining power, we are opening the door to much less than we can get now. I don't like that either, but it is the reality of the situation. All the anger and frustration isn't changing all these external factors.

A no vote isn't a no risk vote. To think we have nothing to lose is short sighted and potentially a very dangerous stance for us to take. There are ramifications to consistently rejecting offers that are fair (in the opinion of an arbitrator and/or the public). I just hope each person will consider these factors. Then vote however you feel you should - not what you feel pressured into.

At the very least - the very least, they could be giving us our step and refrain from trying to split us up. We earned that step. We work very hard for this district. We love these kids. How could anybody support the idea of us getting robbed the step we earned? It really breaks my heart that the district thinks so little of us to essentially rip an entire year of work from us when I, personally, show up to work every day with the intent to do the best for the kids. I think of the time I devote away from friends and family to plan engaging lessons and grade. How exhausted I am from thinking of creative ways to get the kids reading. I sacrifice so much of myself - and I know many others sacrifice very much of themselves, too. We are talking 70 hour work weeks for the kids to get the best education I can reasonably provide. And then, after all of that... "Nope. You're not valued. You don't wear a blue badge. You don't deserve the respect of a contract that was even lateral to the one before..."

It's sickening. It's sad that I think I could do great things for this community and district but I don't have the stomach or conscious to rob this community of the money that they do on Dalhart. It's disgusting. If we freeze in pay, the leadership should too.

A great man once said "I believe in servant leadership." He said it once, and I haven't really seen it since. Where his heart went, I have no idea. I don't know how the man who says "I got where I did because of your hard work" offers an embarrassing contract to us two years later that is an obvious insult. If he shared in the hardships with us, I would be fine with a pay freeze. I would be fine with tightening the belt. But there is no intention to share these hardships with us on Dalhart. No... there is a humongous burden and a "high expectation" that the building level staff carry it for him.

For all this talk of "hearts before minds," it would be nice if we were extended that courtesy from our bosses. These are our leaders, the people we depend on for direction. What example do they set for us? What message do they send.

I know there are many here who like to vilify the big kahuna, but the fact is that he is a very intelligent and brilliant man. Seriously, he is. So should I take it as more of an insult that he acts in a way where it is apparent he doesn't consider us? We are supposed to be his support, but he makes no attempt to show us that he's in it with us too. This is not the man I met seven years ago, but why did he have to change?

For me it's not so much a matter of the terms of the contract, it's all the bullying and harassment that we have all faced over the last year or so.

---It's hard to vote for a contract that would be positive for everybody let alone one that asks us to give for the sake of a budget when we've all seen someone or we ourselves have been treated in an appalling manner.

---It's hard when one walks into their school and wonders whether or not they'll be summoned to an office

or an administrator(s) will walk into their room writing and
looking,

or that one will have to justify their actions literally play by play
as if they had no degree at all and their own professional
word means nothing at all.

All this by in some cases "core leaders" or administrators who
have either just barely been credentialed or have no
background in what they are evaluating.

---It's hard to watch superb teachers, teachers that one knows are better them on one's best day be let go because of the capriciousness of their building administrator.

---It's hard to feel professional when EVERY mistake no matter how trivial or small is highlighted but when one does something positive even to the point of having the Superintendent acknowledge it,

but the building administration doesn't recognize it or won't
recognize it.

--It's hard watching fellow brothers and sisters (staff) following completely separate but unequal rules. It's hard to then watch the same people be played off each other.

---It's hard to come in everyday knowing that your Building Principal is or has been under several lawsuits but still acts with impunity. Literally in their own words, "I will do it till I'm told to stop."

---It's hard hearing that your Union states that the way you are treated is not part of the contract negotiations but yet the language of the contract was changed because it was found to be "offensive".

---It's hard to be told to take worker actions when one knows that if they were to take such action, they would be cracked on by their administrators whether that be by numerous classroom visitations or a lower evaluation. (How about actually filing a grievance or two or several hundred)

---It's hard to be told "what will the public think" when we aren't even negotiating with the public but with the board.

---Finally, it's hard knowing that if the full light of day where to be shown what we all know to be true, John Q. Public just may be on our side.