Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > October > 05 > Entry
Dayton teacher talks: Huber all over again?
(Huber Heights teachers on strike last month)
Sorry for the late post. Been stuck without Net access all day.
Pretty big news today that Dayton teachers authorized their leaders to call for a strike if contract talks don’t make progress at the next meeting on Nov. 1 (See more on the district’s money woes here.)
Right now, it’s fair to say there’s reason to worry that there could be a teachers’ strike in Dayton. But there’s no imminent danger of a strike. At least not yet.
Could this be a Huber Heights situation, with the teachers walking off the job, raising a similar level of anger and distrust?
Here’s three reasons why the Dayton teacher contract talks, so far, are different from those earlier this year in Huber Heights, which resulted in a nasty week-long strike:
—There’s a greater level of trust. In Huber, the bad feelings go back years and much of it is school board vs. union leadership. School and union officials in Dayton have always eyed each other carefully, but I don’t think the same sort of personal clashes and raw emotions are present in these talks.
There are some interesting political dynamics here. Pat Lynch is newly installed as the union president and has a very different personal style than her predecessor, Willie Terrell. Plus, successful talks are certainly important to establishing her credibility.
On the board’s side, there is a very narrow margin of error. The board needs community goodwill for their upcoming levy try and it needs teacher confidence — not to mention the continuity of uninterrupted instruction — to keep the district’s academic momentum going.
—Talks are ongoing. If you see talks break off, it’s time to get more worried. Prior to the Huber strike, the two sides weren’t even meeting anymore. Talks in Dayton have been civil and ongoing to this point.
—Everybody knows the big issue is money. In the Huber strike, all sorts of side issues clouded the talks, but in the end the final deal was mostly about money. At least here, money is the issue from the start, which should help keep the talks focused.
What’s your prediction? Will this be a strike like in Huber Heights? Or will they work it out?
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, Schools and Politics
Comments
By DPS PARENT
October 10, 2006 11:20 AM | Link to this
JOE, PLEASE run for something you care about and get off of the Board of Education! We know you are only on the board to get your name out so that you can run for a higher office. You are no help to DPS with your constant negative comments about the district. YOU ARE THE BOARD MEMBER DO SOMETHING POSITIVE FOR THE DISTRICT AND STUDENTS OR RESIGN and get out of the way of those who want to improve.By Joe Lacey
October 8, 2006 12:21 PM | Link to this
Scores have improved at DPS thanks to a lot of hard work by a lot of people, but our ranking, the comment in question, has not Old Prof. It’s of no help to our morale to celebrate accomplishments we have not achieved.By daytondriver
October 8, 2006 11:55 AM | Link to this
Sorry about that Scott. I will kindly put my foot back onto the floor, and out of my mouth! ;-) Sometimes these blogs and such can be confusing. Take care, and thank you for your coverage, and the opportunity to chip in from all angles besides the public relations department from Dayton Public Schools.By Scott Elliott
October 8, 2006 7:29 AM | Link to this
daytondriver, I think the comment you’re referring to appears under a different post — “Schools get cut, city gets raise.” Nothing was deleted.By teachermom
October 8, 2006 1:05 AM | Link to this
I absolutely refuse to promote any more levies, bonds, etc. The last time that happened we were all given scripts with lists of taxpayers to call with a big promise of a raise if we were successful. Well we gave up days of planning periods and we were lied to! We got NO RAISE and had to FIGHT to get just a lousy hundred bucks for getting it passed. Now we are out of Academic Emergency and the BOE expects us to take no raise and ridiculous benefits while giving themselves a nice raise and better insurance. What many people are unaware of is that the teachers are JUST as educated as the administrators, just in educating the students at THEIR graduate levels. We also have teachers with adminstrative degrees that prefer to stay in the classroom for the love of teaching. We want a raise too.This isn’t about a lack of money. Take a look around (everywhere). This is a union-busting tactic. We work very hard and deserve every bit of what we are asking- NO less. I do not believe the district is broke, if it is then the money hasn’t been spent on the students! I would suggest a state audit. The downtown offices are shameful compared to what students and teachers work in. Does Administration REALLY need solid marble flooring, tropical plants, TWO sets of security guards, and air conditioning ? Where are the security guards and A/C for the children ? Rumor has it that some office furnishings were quite “over the top” also, but it’s hard to worry about that when you are constantly trying to fix broken metal feet on chairs because “there are no more.” Surely money was saved when DPS discontinued paying Montgomery County ED teachers to educate their identified Emotionally Disturbed students at $25,000 each. It was much cheaper to bring them back into the buildings that they were so disruptive in to begin with. Hey, maybe they can sell off some of that copper from Roosevelt that they’ve been so worried about guarding. There’s a start ! Parents, Gail Littlejohn does not care about your children. She should be trying to keep the good teachers that are in Dayton right now and attract others. If they can’t pay us then they need to get out of that fancy Reynolds Building and work in something more like our buildings (so they CAN give us a raise). What’s alarming to me is the fact that our elitist school board president is trusted to carry out resposibilities and make major decisions but year in and year out does not pay her taxes. I guess “only the little people pay taxes,” right ?By daytondriver
October 7, 2006 9:39 PM | Link to this
why was my post reguarding the DPS Transportation Department controversies deleted? There was nothing untrue or libelous in the post. So why was the post deleted? Anti-union bias? Sure seems that way.By Oldprof
October 7, 2006 8:39 PM | Link to this
Now, here’s one thing to think about. When Dayton puts the levy on the ballot, will it—like other recent levies in other communities—be called an “increase”? Because, frankly, that’s a lie. Dayton currently collects, in real dollars, a little over 50% of the revenues it did per capita after the last levy. State law prevents the actual dollars collected from most property tax levies from keeping pace with inflation. To be honest, any levy that doesn’t increase actualy dollars from the prior ones should be called an “inflation adjustment” levy, not an increase. And if we were really smart, we’d tax income rather than property, using a progressive bracketed formula that would collect dollars that were actually generated, rather than assessing taxes again and again based on money once spent. Let’s face it, property taxes are brutal to retirees and others on fixed incomes.By Oldprof
October 7, 2006 8:34 PM | Link to this
Hm, sounds like Joe isn’t at all pleased that Dayton is supposed to have improved. Trust me, Joe, nobody in the know is giddy over the ratings, which are after all blown like leaves in the wind of every-changing standards at the state level. But scores and attendance have improved in actuality, not only via statistical tricks, and it doesn’t help morale to pooh pooh the positive trends.By Rick
October 7, 2006 12:12 PM | Link to this
Scott, Joe, Scott had a couple of articles that demonstrated that white students’ graduation rates were much lower than the district as a whole. This lower graduation rate was known when I was active in education matters in the mid to late 1990s. Back then, the DPS Administration did not care. This indifference was widely known in East Dayton. If I recall, there was information about how the graduation rate for whites had increased in the last couple of years. In promoting the levy, it might be good for promoters to emphasize how improvement had occurred for all students, including white students.By Joe Lacey
October 7, 2006 7:37 AM | Link to this
To correct DPSPARENT, our district rankings are down from 05 to 06. We went from 4th from last to second to last. We came out of Academic Emergency, but as far as rankings go, every AE school district came out of AE.By DPSPARENT
October 6, 2006 10:17 PM | Link to this
After reading Scott’s article about the finances, it looks like there is no $ for a raise. Teachers need to get on board and help pass a levey then go back for the raise or negoitate that if you pass the levey you get the raise. I am happy with the changes Dr. Mack & the board have made. Teachers are focused on Academics, new schools are going up, and district rankings are up. LET’S ALL WORK TOGETHER FOR A LEVEY TO REWARD THE STAFF OF DPS. We wanted results and they are showing them to us.By Keith
October 6, 2006 2:22 PM | Link to this
The big difference is that Dayton has management who understand negotiations and people unlike Huber; they don’t have someone from Indiana where the management was Lord of the Plantation and “take it or leave” is the motto w/ regard to worker’s rights. The problem in Ohio is the Republicans’ lack of respect for Supreme Court rulings that other ways of funding schools needed to be found. We’re headed for more of the same old in Columbus if same old people are put back in, too. Funding games are on the way even more with no equitable reduction of local cost out of Columbus’ monies.By Dave
October 6, 2006 11:10 AM | Link to this
Homeschooling, if done properly, is everything the proponents claim. But to be honest, most parents really can’t do it. You are talking about a huge investment in time and patience. Too many families need both parents to work, just to make ends meet.By Mary
October 6, 2006 10:30 AM | Link to this
Unfortunately, I have to agree with “concerned parent” even though my children and I were mostly educated in public schools. The education system, health care system, etc seem to be broken institutions. I would add that not only should concerned parents consider homeschooling, they should also engage in seeking accountability throughout public institutions so our culture will survive somehow for their children.By dayton teacher
October 6, 2006 10:17 AM | Link to this
Old Prof, I disagree. Gail Littlejohn IS the culprit, she has drawn the line in the sand. I agree with Scott in that the Huber Heights strike and the potential Dayton strike is different. In Huber the board was offering a 3.5% raise and the Dayton BOE is offering NO RAISE and an increase in insurance premiums. But we’re not really talking, in the Federal mediator’s office on the Sept 28, the meeting between the 2 sides lasted less than 2 hours because the board would not budge from its position. Gail Littlejohn talks out of both sides of her mouth. She is no friend to teachers, no wonder her coalition is dwindling. The Kids First “team” is a joke.By Oldprof
October 6, 2006 7:12 AM | Link to this
While I also would encourage every parent to consider homeschooling, it’s really not an option for many. Two-income families don’t have the time to invest; poorly educated parents are unlikely to do the job well despite the availability of solid instructional materials; parents who don’t start out with a strong relationship with the child are likely to find homeschooling is not a magic formula for building stronger bonds. I respect homeschooling as an option far more than those abysmal charter schools, but those who’ve succeeded at it are, I’ve noticed, prone to mistakenly believe that the same success will come to everyone who tries it—parents should first educate themselves about the intricacies of homeschooling and adopt it only after a good, hard critique of their own chances of success. The need for public education is going to remain, and fixing it is going to require more than a call for universal homeschools.By concernedparent
October 5, 2006 11:16 PM | Link to this
This is just another reason to consider homeschooling. If there is a strike the students are going to really miss out. I still remember the DPS strike when I was in middle school (‘92? ‘93?) and even though substitutes were broght in, not many kids showed up. Also, the ones that did show up didn’t get any work done. It was basically just a place to be baby-sat at that point. Parents, step up and take responsibility for educating your child. You’ll develop stronger bonds and always know if your child is struggling in a particular subject. Don’t let your children be used as pawns, and don’t let them fall behind in their education. There are many homeschool support groups in the Dayton area with loads of valuable information (plus, plenty of opportunities to ‘socialize’, LOL, since that’s usually the biggest concern of people against homeschooling).By Oldprof
October 5, 2006 9:21 PM | Link to this
Another difference: none of Dayton’s school board seems to be as much of a big-mouthed loose cannon as Huber Heights’ Carl Fisher. By contrast, Gail Littlejohn has publicly stated taht the teachers deserve a reward for their hard work. The villains here are state legislators who micromanage, skim money from education for their pet projects, and extend corporate welfare to the underserving at the cost of public institutions.By Mary
October 5, 2006 6:58 PM | Link to this
I am concerned that the result will be another bigger hole regarding money to be passed on to future boards and taxpayers. That is why the federal government(while digging its own holes) is requiring the states to generate reports that map out their promises to the unions - promises that some argue in no way can be fulfilled.