Insult?

Last night many of us went to the board meeting as the board had promised to discuss and vote on voluntary recognition when the results of the PELRB count of our card vote were finished. They were finished early this week. We more than met the burden of proof for collective bargaining. Minimum threshold is 30% of the "bargaining unit." We submitted a list of job classifications that eliminated some of the districts classifications for a variety of reasons, our card count gave us over 75% of those classifications. The district included every single classification and employee, we had cards from 64.7% of that more complete list. We clearly more than met the requirements for certification as the exclusive representative for collective bargaining.

At the board meeting we were not invited to speak. The promised discussion and vote did not occur. Instead the board voted to create a "local labor board." This means that our poor district, poor in the sense that Dr. Cockerham continually uses lack of funds as a reason for not doing many different things like paying our teachers full pay for having to work 3 weeks of their summer vacation, has to spend thousands of dollars setting up and maintaining a local labor board. The district has to pay all the expenses of this labor board, including legal fees for legal council, while the local labor board will be duplicating the services that the state labor board performs. The state labor board is paid for by the state, and is a humongous 30 miles away.

It is clearly much more cost effective to save that 30 miles in wear and tear on school vehicles while paying for different set of lawyers to research questions the local labor board might need answered, or to even take the district to court for what ever possible illegal actions the board might take during negotiations.

Joann Salazar deserves full credit for asking the board to wait on voting to approve the local labor board. She wanted to research and discuss further the wisdom of this move. It was pointed out by Joe Romero, that he believed that board rules required that if one board member objected to anything on the consent list, that it be removed from the consent list. This did not happen. Instead the consent list was voted on, and passed, approving the creation of a local labor board. Mrs. Salazar voted against the entire consent list rather than vote for the approval to create a local labor board. It is not clear at this time if the actual vote for approval of the consent list was legal because of Joann Salazar's objection to the inclusion of the that item in the consent list. It is also not clear what happens if the vote was indeed illegal.

What is important here is to recognize that in spite of there being new faces on the board, nothing much has changed. There is no more respect for the employees than there was before, and the concept of doing what is really best for the students of the district is lost in the shuffle. It is also important to realize that, regardless of this apparent insult and seeming lack of honor as demonstrated by the board, it is we the employees, who get to decide if we want collective bargaining or not, and we have already decided. Collective bargaining will become a reality, this is only a slight delay and nothing to be overly concerned about.

We need to thank Joann Salazar for doing what she believed to be the right thing in wanting more information on the cost and role of a local labor board. We also need to thank Joe Romero for pointing out that he believed it proper protocol to remove the objected to item from the consent list. It would have been nice if he had voted against the consent list and there by back up his belief in following the rules of propriety with appropriate action. It is also important to clarify that we are not opposed to a local labor board, nor are we in favor. A local labor board must do pretty much exactly what the state labor board would do and if it doesn't, either side can appeal to the state labor board, it just costs our district more money. Which if we had plenty of it, wouldn't bother me at all.

When it comes to money I have a really hard time figuring out this district. On the one hand administration pleads poverty, there is no money for this, there is no money for that, but there is enough to give Dr. Cockerham a $6,930 raise. Last year he got a $10,000 raise. So in two years he has gotten an additional $17,000 in income. While giving some of our teachers and other employees, a paltry $700 one year, and $1,400 this year. Last year in a fit of anger I suggested that Dr. Cockerham's raises should be limited to no more than the highest raise a teacher received. That was pretty stupid as Dr. Cockerham pointed out while thanking me for insuring his raise this year. I should have said his raise should be no more than what was received by the lowest raise given to any employee.

Students of Espanola Public Schools - Pay Attention. If you have a PhD and run a school district, you can make big bucks - and if you let emotion run your mouth, you might live to regret what comes out of it.

Membership and Patience - Professional attitude and actions. This is what will get us to where we want to be. If we can continue to act with these foremost in our minds we will be happy with the results.