Thursday, July 13, 2006

Of course

To set it up I'll refer you to a great Tennessean piece by Claudette Riley highlighting teacher absenteeism. NewsChannel 5 also covered this here and here. You may remember that Director of Schools Dr. Pedro Garcia was also concerned enough about this issue to mention it in his State of the Schools speech in February.

So here's a snip from the Tennessean article from April 29:

McGavock High teacher Erick Huth has been excused from 42½ days of work this school year to conduct business on behalf of the local teachers' union.

And here's the clarifying comment from the City Paper this morning indicating they tried to be fair in their coverage:

Eric Huth, MNEA’s chief negotiator, could not be reached for comment.
Of course.

I believe Mr. Huth needs to decide who he works for. He needs to choose either the MNEA or the children of MNPS. But it's enough of having both feet firmly planted in two camps.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Huth works for the director of Schools, Dr. Pedro Garcia. Dr. Garcia frequently asks MNEA officers to attend functions- and it's important for classroom teachers and professionals to be represented, not just a bunch of paper pushers. Dr. Garcia approved every one of these days of leave- in fact asked Mr. Huth to attend these functions. So where are your words for Dr. Garcia on this matter? And when Mrs. Nevill took the story to the Tennessean, where was her rebuke of the administrator who asked for and approved these leave days?

Some of the days were negotiations. Your negotiators, Mrs. Brooks, and you pay many of them $110,000 a year and more, asked to meet with the MNEA negotiations team DURING THE SCHOOL DAY. This tells you how much they are needed in their posts during working hours. Anyway, this team that is sooo educated, qualified, and necessary, didn't seem to be concerned that their request would take a classroom teacher away from his students. Perhaps their evenings are more important than Mr. Huth's.

But I'll be watching the next school board meeting for your rebuke of the central office and YOUR negotiators in this matter. Otherwise, it's just adversarial politics as usual.