Things to think about in the future –

I wish to make perfectly clear at this time that what follows are my own personal thoughts, they do not in anyway reflect the opinion of Española-NEA, it’s executive board, or membership and with careful reading you will see that my mind is in no way made up or set in concrete. Thank you for your indulgence.

I was reading the Rio Grande Sun two weeks ago – the story about the land swap deal in Alcalde continuing to be delayed and the need for the district to get a $21 million dollar bond issue passed by January some time. This got me thinking about the last bond issue attempt that failed by something like 35 votes or so.

I started thinking about what might be different now. Back then there was talk about money raised in previous bond issues which hadn’t yet been spent, like build the Alcalde elementary school. There was also discussion about the new Sombrillo school being several million dollars over budget and a year or two behind schedule. I also recall people asking how or why a school was built with no water or sewage system, and which was too small on the day it opened for the number of students. Portable buildings now accommodate students at the brand new school.

Then there was that $100,000 hole dug out behind the high school for sports facilities which were never built. You can see a wonderfully flat spot where they got that expensive hole filled in so nicely…no building, no wrestling room. I believe there was also mention of two portable buildings sitting up on the hill behind the high school on traveling beams that cost thousands of dollars a month to rent for more than a year… the buildings sitting there unused and unusable, targets of vandals and graffiti artists while our good money was being spent on the beams. The bond election failed and the district openly wondered why. So really, what is different now?

At the time of the failed bond election, Española-NEA had just had a card drive where-in 77% of EPS employees had signed a card unequivocally stating they wanted Española-NEA to represent them, and that they wanted collective bargaining with the district. The school board chose instead to ignore the statement from its employees. If the district had responded positively, things would be very different now.

Board President Chavez did ask me personally to support the bond issue. I did support the bond issue, I voted for it, as did my wife. I even wrote a letter to all Española-NEA members telling them I was voting for the bond issue. I also asked Mr. Chavez for his support and recognition of Española-NEA – clearly he has not done that. In fact he has not even allowed the matter to come up for a vote so that any board members who do support their employee’s rights to discuss and negotiate their working conditions can do so.

Española-NEA was forced to wait 5 months to have the election for bargaining. By the largest margin ever in New Mexico public school bargaining elections, the vote was a whopping 401 to 15 in favor of bargaining and Española-NEA.

That was a month ago. The district continues to delay. We have yet to start the bargaining process, and soon the district will be trying to pass a bond issue. No doubt, they will ask for the support of school employees.

What has changed? We now know that last year our district kept over one million dollars in state and federal money intended to pay for employees and contractors in the special education department who no longer worked there. Now the administration is pleading poverty because it has to pay this money back…but the head of the special education department got a $15,000 raise. Is this change, or is it business conducted the same old way? Do you trust this administration to properly handle 21 MILLION dollars worth of your money? Or to build the schools in Velarde and Alcalde as they promised to do last bond issue?

What has changed? Why should you think anything is different now than it was a year ago, or two years ago or three years ago?

If we had collective bargaining a year ago, it is quite possible that the problem with the special education departments ‘oversight’ and retaining over a million dollars it had no business keeping would have been spotted long before it became a real issue – why? Because with collective bargaining the district has to detail exactly where every incoming penny is coming from, and how it expects to spend it. The union looks at that, making sure it is really being spent where it is needed, and in the most efficient, fair and effective manner. Do you think custodians, cooks, secretary’s and teachers would have been held to less than a 5% raise while people at central office got raises larger than some of our employees salaries? The district will need Española-NEA to agree with future salary decisions, and we won’t ever agree to the injustices of the past.

So do I know yet how I feel about a bond issue? NO. Honestly, we need to pass a bond issue, we need to make the improvements and build the schools and do the things the bond money is for, but do I have any faith or trust in the current administration to handle the money properly? I have yet to see any change in the way they are doing business.

There is absolutely no reason why the district should not be sitting at the negotiation table with us right now. We could be making progress creating new ways to do business and reaching an agreement that is fair and equitable and takes the best interests of our students and employees into account. The only reason we are not sitting there right now is because the school board is still refusing to acknowledge the election results, or that we even won the election. All of my life in watching election results I have been impressed when the loser of an election calls the winner and congratulates them on their victory. Has anyone been congratulated yet? I sure haven’t. I don’t need a nice pat on the back, what I do need is to have the district begin treating its employees and the voters of Espanola with the respect we all deserve.

Not much change yet.