Erin Kutnick’s Blog

Today, teachers in the Capistrano Unified School district participated in a walk-out.  Instead of going to work, they were on street corners all over south county holding up signs to bring awareness to a huge educational crisis in our district.

I’m not happy about this strike.  Students belong in the classroom with their teachers learning and preparing for their future.  The teachers know this, the parents know this, and the students know this.  Apparently though, the trustees are completely unaware or uncaring (or both).

This situation has been looming for months and the Board of Trustees has had ample opportunity to avoid this mess.  At meeting after meeting, parents, students, and teachers begged the board to sit down and negotiate a suitable contract.  They refused.

Last week, it looked like there might be a small chance to avoid the strike when the board president issued a press release stating her willingness to meet with teachers.  That hope was quickly dashed though when another press release followed clarifying that the trustees were not willing to reconsider any part of their imposed contract.

That left teachers very few options and late last week they authorized the strike.  Most of us still wanted to believe that it wouldn’t happen.  We hoped and prayed that the authorization vote would finally be the wake-up call to these trustees.  We hoped that the student sick-out, the phone calls, the letters, something, anything would get through to them and they would step up and do the right thing.

We hoped in vain.  In the end, the trustees have completely failed our children.  They have ignored the will of the constituents, and they have violated our trust.  What is perhaps most disturbing is that they have spent the past 6-7 weeks “preparing” for this strike and yet by all accounts, school today was a disaster.  Only a small number of substitutes showed up, there were no lesson plans, and students watched movies all day.  All that time and money spent and in the end, there really was no plan.  Thank goodness all the students were safe but beyond that, it was a total waste.

If only that time and effort had been put into reaching an agreement, all of this could have been avoided.  True leadership would have placed the priority on avoiding a strike and keeping students in the classroom instead of hiring unqualified subs and renting movies!

We don’t know how long the strike will continue but we do know that this board of trustees does not care about the students in our district.  They do not care about parents, teachers, property values, or the future of our country.  They are enemies to public education and therefore, they must be removed!

They forced the strike and now we need to get them out!

Tension was high last night at the special board meeting where the trustees voted 6-1 to impose a contract on the teachers.  At issue was some language in the contract that made permanent cuts to teachers compensation and also the fact that the contract had not been negotiated between the two parties.

The entire process has been very frustrating as both sides have maintained that they want to work together yet an agreement could not be reached.  Many of us were hopeful that after the independent Fact Finder’s report was released, both parties would sit down and craft a deal based on those recommendations.

The teacher’s said they agreed with the report and were willing to negotiate.  The district claims the teacher’s refused.

At this point though the possibility of a strike seems very real and is very concerning for all parents in the district.  What do we do with our children if the teacher’s strike?  I personally don’t have a lot of confidence in the ability of any substitutes to adequately fill the void of the permanent teachers.  I also have grave concerns over the safety of students on campus as I cannot imagine they can find 2,200 temporary employees to replace the teachers leaving the supervision less than adequate.

It is quite disappointing that it has come to this and we have no one to blame except for the trustees.  They can point fingers at Sacramento, the teachers’ union, the economy, or anyone else but in the end, they are the ones with the position of authority.  It is their responsibility to educate the 52,000 students in our district and it looks like they are going to fail.