Hi all. We had a whole second and third explainer in the works, with the background on the school committee’s role and how they are elected. But, things are kinda bad right now. We may get to it at some point, but today, we wanted to just talk to everyone. And a few people specifically.
Hi guys, It’s KT this time! Anyway, Jim Dowd’s dead, which is really rude of him, as I normally would have had him help me with this. But where we are as a city, things are so bad the current management of the Clam rolled me out of the closet I was hibernating in. So I guess I’m here on my own, just one mom hyperventilating into a pillow at you.
For us parents, It’s been a long week. It feels like Covid times again, doesn’t it? Ah, nostalgia. Is your house filled with tiny boxes of chocolate milk and those mini powdered donuts like mine is? It should be. Go to your local school and get some free food. The staff is dying to see a friendly face and give you seven different small containers of apple juice, I promise.
Yesterday seemed so full of promise for our school situation. The daily messaging from the principals changed from the divisive tone and seemed more inclusive, more wiling to work things out, less finger-pointing. The phrase “illegal strike” didn’t even come up once, nevermind the seven thousand times I heard it last week. At least, for the moment. The no-school call came late. The teams at the bargaining table worked until nearly midnight. It seemed like we could be a community again, instead of whatever this is.
But today’s sentiment, and releases from the teacher’s union, on the heels of what seemed like a promising day yesterday with both sides working late and hard… that sucked. And that wording was decisive. Not inclusive. It was clear we were so far from the end.
And it was the breaking point for me as a parent. I lost it. In the middle of a long work day, I absolutely became the screaming cowboy in the sky.
So many other parents I know, the ones who have always been smart and reasonable and involved, echoed the sentiment. The patience we had is gone. The goodwill is waning. We are tired, our PTO days grow thin, our spring vacation plans fading like the photo of Marty McFly’s siblings after he kisses his mom. We work hours when we can to catch up so our bosses don’t lose their patience with us. We have family chip in. But some don’t have family. Some don’t have any options at all.
Our children are bouncing off the walls at best, and really struggling without school at worst.
Right now, our frustration is because this all has seemed so fruitless. The teachers feel disrespected. They feel the paras have been disrespected. Their frustration turns to agitation.
Then there’s a rally outside the house of a school committee member who isn’t home. But her young kids are. And they see their teachers, and dozens of other teachers, outside screaming at them. The people they trusted.
Then Greg Verga gives the finger. The freakin’ M A Y O R. Sure, it was meant for a guy that has more than earned a middle finger salute with his aggressive stance on everything and I’ll go down swinging on that. But everyone saw it. It stoked the flames. There’s a rally outside the mayor’s house. People yelling at 10pm. Things have gone from bad to worse.
And then the Facebook warriors take every piece of news, every photo, every comment that’s thirdhand from a guy who used to sell cigarettes to Greg Verga’s second cousin and repeat it as gospel truth. Even when it’s nowhere close to the truth. Even when it’s taken out of context to make the other side look bad. “You weren’t at the bargaining table!” Sounds terrible until it turns out they weren’t supposed to be and someone much better suited to hammer out a particular detail was.
Here’s the thing: When you tell people to get mad, you are responsible for what happens when they get mad.
Right now, the kids are watching and listening. They’re watching the union obfuscate the truth if it doesn’t fit the agenda, and refuse to take responsibility for any of the downsides of a strike that they voted on after 60 days of no contract (with, according the the Globe, suspect timing). They’re watching the mayor be petty. They’re watching the school committee hire a firm to write scathing emails every night.
This community is made up of fantastic caring educators, and also hard working committee members and administrators who care about this city, and both sides are stuck in a vicious cycle like when eagles lock their talons and fall to the ground in a death spiral.
The timing is awful. We just lived through a fraught election cycle, and got no room to breathe. The parents, the kids, the city did not need this. But we were thrust into it, all the same.
And it feels like tonight we’re on the edge of the cliff, where something big and bad looms if we aren’t pulled back. Like the city is a powderkeg ready to explode. Today was the first day I felt like something really terrible could happen from this, and someone could get hurt, accidentally or otherwise. People are that upset and whipped up, a mob unable to regulate. It isn’t getting better. It’s getting worse. But it doesn’t have to.
Right now we are lucky enough to have a school committee full of people who care deeply about our community, our kids, and, most importantly, education. They are our neighbors, our friends, our coaches. They care. To turn around and treat them like this is a continuation of the election and they are the enemy is not fair. It is disingenuous. It is ugly. Who will want this job when they are done? Who is going to run to be treated like that?
Assuming the worst of intentions from the folks on the other side, and only assuming the best on your side, is never going to end this strike. It’s damaging, especially when it’s not just assuming these intentions, it’s also announcing them publicly to make people upset.
Having hundreds, perhaps even thousands of people who haven’t been paying attention – until everything came to a screeching halt – believing literally anything without verifying the truth or understanding the backstory or the reasoning makes the problem worse and widens the divide.
I want the teachers to get a fair contract so they stay here instead of jumping to a district where they can get more money, and benefits that keep them educating instead of moving to private sector jobs. Our educators are amazing, and there are so many teachers who have helped my kids in the decade I’ve been a GPS parent. But I also understand where our city is financially. The school committee is only given a specific amount of money to fund the budget. We need to address that. If a contract goes through and we can’t fund what we need, our educators face steep layoffs to stay within the budget given. That’s the truth at the end of the day. The problem of school funding is systemic and can not be solved in a few weeks by a handful of elected community members.
I promise you, all of you on either side, that no one is trying to do their worst. At the same time, we all need to be doing better. Taking stock of where we are and how we can get to the end goal of a signed contract for our educators and paras with a reasonable salary the city can pay for in line with our peer districts. How we as a city pay for what we need- because the money we have right now is not enough.
I do not say any of this to be patronizing to either side. I say it because I have been there – I once went through a divorce where everything seemed personal and disrespectful and I would not give in on anything because of my anger. No one could convince me that the righteous anger I felt was maybe not the full story. But time healed, and I moved on, and I realized – in that moment, I was unable to see the forest for the trees. I’m thankful for that gift of time, and that once it passed, it was clear our goals were more similar than we could have let ourselves believe in the thick of it.
Being too far in the fight, entrenched for so long has clouded the vision of those tasked with coming to an agreement. Our words and actions matter. Finger pointing and declaring your side not responsible for any of this mess does not solve the problem. Every single person involved is part of the problem, and must also seek a mutual solution. There has been progress. Focus on that and let it guide you.
Let’s get this done, unified, as a community. Please. Find a “good enough,” a “close enough”. For all the kids struggling with no one home to help them, for all the parents who cried silently in their closet today when they learned we weren’t done, for the teachers who miss their students, for Fiesta’s sake! – take a deep breath, forgive the words said in anger by the other side, stop saying them yourself, remember to use your indoor voice, and move forward, while we still can.
Exemplary. Heartfelt. Truth.
Thank you. I wish ALL would read this.
Thank you so much for both of the schoolpocalyse posts. It’s reassuring to know there are voices of reason in all of this. You expressed everything I’ve been feeling, and helped explain things without bias. Much appreciated!
Amen, amen, and amen!!
Thanks KT for a great review; much appreciated. These things are really hard and it’s distressing when people ignore that reality and just yell and scream from either side.