CAT Tracks for August 23, 2002

CAT Tracks for August 23, 2002

SHORT AND SWEET...

...THIS REPORT, THAT IS, NOT THE BOARD MEETING

Well, fourteen (14) months after it all began, the CAT and the Cairo Board of Education have a new contract...effective from August 15, 2001 through August 14, 2005. In anticlimatic fashion, the Board voted 6 to 0 to ratify. (Member Arnold Burris was absent.) The CAT membership had ratified the proposed contract last week by a large majority.

Each person...on both sides...has his/her opinion on whether or not this is a good agreement. However, I am sure that ALL will agree that it is a relief that the next three years will not be interupted by a work stoppage. Hopefully over these next three years, a "healing" WILL take place...that the Board will begin to see its certified staff for the hard-working, dedicated professionals that you are...and that you will see evidence of same - through words and (more importantly) actions. What transpired this past Spring should never have happened...it must never be allowed to happen again.

Hopefully, new contracts will be distributed by the end of next week. Thank you in advance for your patience.

IN OTHER BUSINESS...

Lisa Childs and Elizabeth Vasquez resigned as girls' basketball coaches at CJHS

Orvetta Washington resigned as teacher at CJHS

Linda Cox resigned as teacher's aide

Angela Brown and Danny Brown were recalled as teachers' aides

Nancy Herbert was hired as 4th Grade teacher

A leave of absence was granted to Sadie Matthews for the 2002-03 school year

Music was reinstated to a full-time position

A night custodian was hired for CJHS

The superintendent was authorized to advertise for a part-time case worker and a part-time secretary for the TAP grant

Viola Brown's position was clarified as secretary/bookkeeper

The September and November Board meetings were rescheduled due to calendar conflicts

The District budget for the 2002-03 school year will be put on reading August 26th so that it can be adopted at the rescheduled meeting on September 26th

Those of you who have followed CAT TRACKS this summer online have already read the following. I repeat this as the "final word" on the Strike of 2002...

QUESTION: Did we win? ANSWER: It depends on how you look at it. In the short run, we lost a "chunk of change"...there is no denying that. Based upon his extensive experience, the federal mediator advised us to just consider it "the cost of doing business." As an organization, we clearly demonstated to one and all that we are one, tough, bunch of CATs...not ones to tuck tail and run. This bodes very well for the future. In the long run, we will recoup the lost dollars. That IS the nature of the "business". The initial settlement of a strike is always disappointing. The process...the negotiations...the give-and-take...paints both sides into a corner where they can't get what they want. BUT...it's the next time...when you reap the dividends of your efforts. If the CAT had capitulated last Spring, it would have been seen as weak...willing to "go along to get along"...to take whatever they were willing to give. The Board of Education now knows for sure that we "ain't that breed of CAT". We may be a few dollars short, but we're tall on dignity. You should be VERY proud...your bargaining team is extremely proud of you!

QUESTION: Did the Board win? ANSWER: H...Heck no! As negotiations progressed - and especially during the strike - it became very obvious that the Board of Education had ONE GOAL...to break the teachers' union. They FAILED miserably! Although they went to great lengths to turn you against your leadership...using both inside and outside resources...YOU got closer together. Instead of dividing the union, they made it stronger. PLUS...the Board is "damaged goods". Their actions during the strike lost their own initial supporters...who said so on television! In the end, they had two people speak up for them...one parent and one ex-Board member. AND now they are (again) fighting with "city hall" - trying to resurrect their failed "new school bond referendum" - thereby drawing the wrath of the city officials.