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Property-Tax Reform = Education Reform
Mendham:
Town Stuff:
Property-Tax Reform = Education Reform
     By 06. 06. on Thursday, December 14, 2006 - 2:02 am: |
80 percent of property taxes is about educating kids, and 80 percent of that "public education" goes to pay the salaries of the glorified baby sitters. With all the "talk" of property tax reform it's pretty sad that this superficial mush is as deep as the news media will tread.
quote: Teachers plan rally for contract
12/06/2006
Mediator to join talks Dec.18
WASHINGTON TWP. – Teachers from West Morris Central and Mendham high schools plan to get out their signs and picket on Monday, Dec. 18, in support for a new teachers contract.
The rally is being planned by members of the West Morris Regional Education Association who have been working without a contract for the past five months. Representatives of the teachers association said the rally is a show of support in hopes of a contract resolution.
“This rally is more about the education association than the school board,” said association president, Joyce Hartmann. “It shows that these negotiations are important to us and shows our camaraderie as a group.”
The association, which represents 243 teachers at West Morris Central and Mendham high schools, was created in 1962.
The rally outside of the West Morris Central High School is planned to start at 5:30 and end before a 7 p.m. mediation session, begins. A representative from the State Public Employment Relations Commission or PERC will be present.
“We are holding the rally to show support for the negotiations,” said Jim Farrell, a member of the education association and English teacher at West Morris Central. “We want to show that we are united, demonstrate solidarity, and show our hope for a resolution.”
Hartmann said she is expecting between 200 and 300 people to show their support at the event, where refreshments will be served.
“We are encouraging everyone to attend,” Hartmann said. “We know it will be cold and we aren’t thrilled it’s the week before Christmas, but it is important to let the board know how important this is to us and how many people it is affecting.”
Farrell said the issues up for debate go deeper than just local education services and affect many teachers and school boards across the state.
“It’s important for us to remember that we are part of something much bigger,” Farrell said.
Farrell also said it is important for the public to know about the negotiations so they can be informed about how things unfold and whether issues get resolved.
“An informed public is a supportive public,” Farrell said.
The school board and the education association had filed for mediation on Oct. 16.
Regional Schools Superintendent Anthony DiBattista and members of the teachers association are hoping for a contract agreement to result from the meeting.
“Negotiations mean compromising,” Hartmann said. “Neither side can expect all it wants and you have to agree with resolutions that both sides can live with.”
Representatives from both the school board and the association have said negotiations have gone smoothly and have been positive so far.
“We’ve been in negotiations for a while and have had a good experience with the board to date,” Farrell said. “We trust the process.”
Farrell said the demonstration is not meant as an aggressive statement, but rather a “positive step and positive action by the association to show it is serious.”
Hartmann also said the event is not meant to be viewed as “political.”
“This is a group of people who are being very professional,” Hartmann said. “They are doing everything in the contract plus more.”
Teachers have been working without a contract since June and have been ineligible for raises or credits for classes, said Hartmann.
Representatives from the school board and the association have said that students will not be affected by the negotiations and that no part of the school day will be disrupted by the Dec 18 talks.
“The rally will be after school on our own time,” Farrell said.
Farrell said the association’s 243 members and possibly supporters from the community are expected to attend the rally.
“We are expecting full attendance,” Farrell said. “Anyone who wants to show support is welcome.”
“We are hopeful and certainly expecting a resolution,” Hartmann said.
The West Morris Regional School District includes students in grades 9-12 from Chester and Chester Township, Mendham and Mendham Township, and Washington Township.
About 81 of New Jersey’s 592 school districts are negotiating teacher contracts. Officials said about 34 districts’ contracts are still pending.
©Recorder Community Newspapers 2006
Maybe it's just a symptom of my old age, but it seems everywhere I look lately some kind of irony completes the picture. In this case, the irony is that Jim Farrell was my all-time favorite school teacher (even though English obviously wasn't my best subject). I feel a little like an ingrate in attacking a system he obviously sees value in, but then again, I would suggest he asked for it by encouraging me to read novels like 1984 and Catch-22. In simple truth "big labor" (the teachers' unions) has just become another big brother burden taxing Social efficiency. Unions no longer fight for fairness, they merely use their power to extort from society special protections and perks.
As I've stated in a few other places on this message board, I think a higher quality, more productive "public education" can be provided at less than half the cost of the current system by maximizing the use of technology, and by minimizing the role of the very expensive, an preposterously redundant live instructors/performers. Even in a corporate controled "information age" time and motivation is the only obstacle to anyone knowing anything, and in my opinion, we waste money and brain cells by continuing to invest in the archaic mythology of institutionalize --Big Brother forced--education.
Here's a brief rundown regarding the changes I would make.
Cable Access: We should put a video camera in the classrooms of the best schools in the country (high-schools and public colleges) and broadcast that "recorded" content 24 hours a day on subject devoted (English history biology...etc) cable channels.
Internet: We should make a meager public investment in a real "information superhighway" that makes the reservoir of stored knowledge in textbooks and instruction manuals freely accessible.
Motivation: As kids have little capacity to understand or appreciate what is in their long-term best interest we should devote some portion of the humongous amount of money spent on public education to provide kids with direct material motivation for acquiring knowledge. The average high-school graduate probably costs more than $150,000 if we offered every child a $50,000 Prize for passing a high school equivalency exam I contend we would have more high-school graduates, at a younger age, and less illiteracy, poverty and crime.
Sports: Elective nonsense that just creates a pointless distraction. If parents what their kids to be athletes they should pay the free-market price for it as there is no "public responsibility" to invest in that waste of time. |
| By 06. 2....... on Thursday, December 21, 2006 - 5:45 am: |
quote: Tentative school pact reached
By BELISA SILVA Staff Writer
12/21/2006
Teachers, regional board agree
WASHINGTON TWP. – Hours after hundreds of teachers demonstrated peacefully for a contract, the West Morris Regional Education Association and the West Morris Regional High School Board of Education announced a tentative contact agreement at 5:30 a.m., Tuesday.
Details of the agreement, however, will not be disclosed until salary guides are complete and approved by the association and Board of Education next month.
The mood was hopeful and the temperature was cold when more than 200 teachers and community members rallied together on Monday in hopes of a contract resolution outside of West Morris Central High School on Bartley Road.
The Beatles’ “Come Together” and the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” were blaring as the large group of educators and supporters chanted, “unite tonight” before the start of the 7 p.m. mediation session at which a representative from the state Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) was present to help negotiate a contract.
Members of the education association who have been working without a contract for the past five months planned the rally to show unity and solidarity in the desire to come to a contract agreement.
Many Attend
“The turnout is great and I am very proud to be here,” association president, Joyce Hartmann, said on Monday night. “Everybody here, including the administration wants to reach a settlement tonight so that we can go on to the business of teaching.”
The association, which represents 243 teachers at West Morris Central and Mendham high schools, was created in 1962.
Chris King, a science teacher at West Morris Central, said he was at the rally “to show support, unity and pride” for the association and the school district.
“This is a great night,” King said.
Representatives from both the school board and the association had said negotiations have gone smoothly and have been positive so far.
Teachers have been working without a contract since June and have been ineligible for raises or credits for classes, said Hartmann.
Representatives from the school board and the association have said that students were not affected by the negotiations and that no part of the school day has been disrupted by the talks.
“I am so proud to be part of this wonderful association,” said Michelle Mongey, a special education history teacher at West Morris Central. “This is a great community and a great place to teach. These are really great teachers doing great things in this district.”
At the rally, Russ Raffay, the association vice president and a teacher at Mendham High School, and Pete Angus, an art teacher at West Morris Central, stood on a picnic table and demanded a fair contract for teachers in front of a cheering crowd.
Raffay said teachers in the district require a salary comparable to a “fair county average.”
The crowd, which included many children and sweater-clad dogs, cheered to Raffay’s words.
“It was a larger turn out than I expected,” Hartmann said. “It was wonderful for me to see the sense of professionalism and commitment of our members. I am honored to represent a terrific and hard-working group.”
The West Morris Regional School District includes students in grades 9-12 from Chester and Chester Township, Mendham and Mendham Township, and Washington Township.
About 81 of New Jersey’s 592 school districts are negotiating teacher contracts. Officials said about 34 districts’ contracts are still pending.
Once the specifics of the contract agreement are finalized, each side will vote on the contract and then details will be disclosed, Hartmann said.
“I am proud to be part of a great staff and an excellent educational community,” Hartmann said.
©Recorder Community Newspapers 2006
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| By 07. 2....... on Friday, January 05, 2007 - 9:30 am: |
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