The Burlington Education Association and the Burlington School Board reached a tentative agreement Tuesday shortly before 8 p.m., ending a labor dispute that kept 3,600 students out of school for four days.
Many parents sighed with relief that the bitter dispute was over. The details of the agreement will not be public until the board and union ratify the terms. The union is set to vote on it Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the Burlington High School auditorium. The school board had not set a vote time Tuesday evening.
The last teachers’ strike in Burlington was in 1978, according to the Vermont-National Education Association.
Joanna Grossman of Burlington’s South End cheered the news that an eight-hour mediation session Tuesday resulted in a deal. Her daughter was set to return to her second-grade class at Champlain Elementary School.
“Burlington parents are just ecstatic that the strike is over,” Grossman said via instant message, shortly after an agreement was reached. “I have a friend who is literally having a party in the street with other parents right now. I’m grateful that the BEA and the board finally got together. I can’t wait to learn the terms of the deal. I really hope it’s a strong starting point for the district to turn over a new leaf.”
Others were more cautious. Parent Kevin Garrison, who questioned the teachers’ decision to strike, said he was waiting to learn the details of the agreement before reacting to the settlement.
Mark Porter, school board chair, issued a statement saying the “board and the district have a tremendous amount of respect for our teachers, students, taxpayers and our community — which is reflected in this contract. We are glad we can move forward as a community and get back to what matters most — educating our youth.”
Fran Brock, president of the BEA, told Seven Days that the strike, though painful, accomplished some important things.
“We didn’t want to go on strike, but I think it ended up helping us raise the consciousness of the community; raise the consciousness of the school board of some of the problems that are affecting the teachers and the kids,” Brock said. “I’m really hoping that the community stays involved and stays aware of what’s going on.”
Along with pay and health care, the two sides had disagreed about elementary school teachers having lunch duty and recess duty. Brock said the contract “made inroads” for teachers on that point, but said she would not be more specific until ratification.
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3,600 students divided by 400 teachers equals 9 students/teacher. What the?!? NINE!! For that they deserve to be paid more?
Another ridiculous cave-in to the Teaching Cartel.
(Don’t forget, they have teacher’s assistants, too! We wouldn’t want to overburden them!)
Oh, but it’s for the children, I keep forgetting. Greed is good when it’s for the children. Pitiful, school board.
I think what the public is not seeing is the fact that it’s the children that are losing out when the teachers have their planning time taken away. It’s important that teachers work together to set up classrooms where their students have a good flow between classes to make learning a smooth process. I would suggest that Eric take 20-30 children and spend 6 hours or more a day with them, without a break and without time to plan what you, as their teacher, plan on doing in class. Sure there are assistants to help, but mostly they are there for those students that can’t keep up and need one on one individual help just to keep them afloat. Eric, perhaps you should try managing a set up like that as well. Oh, and really, I’m sure you aren’t the type that would take home your work which almost all of the teachers do…grading papers…lesson planning, etc etc etc. You need a reality check. Go volunteer in a school for 2 weeks full time and see what it is that teachers do.
Janvt,
The teachers don’t have their planning time taken away. No one forces them to leave school when they’re planning the next day’s events, or to stop their planning when working on it at home. How much time a teacher spends is a personal choice.
Most people work very hard for their money, every bit as hard as teachers do but for a lot less.
Tell you what, Janvt, I’ll volunteer to work in a school for two weeks full time and you work 54 hours each of those weeks on a construction site hanging drywall, then tell me how hard teachers work– I say 54 hours because that’s about what you would have to work to equal teacher’s pay. (With at best three weeks vacation and no pension!)
I went to the birthday party of an old friend who teaches near Philadelphia. Most of his friends were teachers. Their favorite topic of conversation: When they could retire and how much they would be getting paid. Not one mentioned this or that wonderful student or how such and such program was marvelous. Nope. It was all about benefits and compensation.
You do know, Janvt, that most working Vermonters have no pensions. How would you like to stand 25 hours for one non-pensioned $11/hr cashier’s job then look forward to your second 24 hours at $13.25 cleaning rental units, also non-pensioned? After those grueling 49 hours you still would have made nowhere near what teachers pocket.
And please, spare me the old saw that anything not granted to teachers makes children suffer. It’s nauseating at best.
Eric Johnson
For as long as I can remember, people have always complained how teachers make too much money, have too many benefits and too much time off. Normally, these complaints are from people that have no benefits at their jobs, lousy vacation packages and on a pay scale associated with the type of work they do. It’s a choice. You too can go to college and spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to better yourself and choose a career that you want to be in. This applies not only to teachers but to doctors, dentists, and professional people who SPENT the money to further themselves into doing something they love to do. Not everyone has that opportunity to push forward in their life, but because they don’t, they should not blame those that do and have managed to accomplish their dreams. The starting salary for a teacher in VT is approx. $35,000 with the average salary of teachers at approx. $52,000. That is after spending 4 years plus in college to get their degrees. Even after they do get their degree, it is then mandated by the State, courses that must be taken to keep up their licenses.
AND finally, if you want to complain about the Burlington educational department, why don’t you question why the superintendent was given a $10,000 bonus this year. OR why the Burlington School Board paid so much to get him the VISA he needed to work at his position and make arrangements with UVM for him to work there in order to get the VISA. Now that he has it, let’s see how long he stays there. Channel your energy there.
Janvt,
The teachers have chosen to better their lives by investing in themselves and going into a well paid and comfortable career field, I wont fault them for looking after their own best interests.
I’m going to look after my own best interests by getting the hell out of Burlington once my lease is up. There’s nothing in this town to entice a working class man to stay.
You suggest people channel their energy at the corrupt and greedy administration instead of the corrupt and greedy union, I’d rather channel it into finding a U Haul. I think that’s the only way to see a return on my spent energy.