Summary of a Teacher Strike DAY 2, 3 and 4 On Tuesday, the second day, I visited with the teachers in two other elementary buildings. Several teachers informed me that farm parents who had small children were complaining about the bus schedule. Their young children were being dropped off at the end of the lanes, more than a half mile from home, and at times that were different from the regular drop-off time. The parents werent informed of the early drop off time and complained about it. The District hadnt responded to their concern. I asked the teachers of those children get signed statements from the parents. Fred and I would collect them and take them to the Superintendent the following day. The second issue of the day was related to children with special needs. The children were all housed together in one classroom in the basement of an elementary school. The classroom had no windows and the lighting was very poor. The teacher had complained to the Principal but nothing had been done. I asked her to invite the parents in for a meeting right after school the following day. I also suggested she also ask the Principal and Superintendent to attend. The next day around 15 parents came to the meeting. I was sitting at the back of the room when the Superintendent arrived. He saw me sitting in the back of the room and refused to meet with the teacher and the parents until I left. I left the room. But at the end of the meeting, nothing was resolved. I met with the parents and the teacher following the meeting with the Superintendent. The teacher and the parents were very disappointed. I explained to the parents that the Association would try to help them and their children by intervening with the school board at their next school board meeting. On Wednesday evening, the Association was holding “cottage meetings” with the parents of high school students. Two issues arose during those meetings. 1. Many parents of high school students were getting pressure from their kids and the administration to approve their children’s release from school so they could work at the canning factory. The management at Aunt Fanny’s Canning Factories said they were short on workers. They approached the administration at the school district to get approval to have high school students released from school so the students could work during the school day for three to four weeks. Together, Management from Aunt Fanny’s and the Superintendent asked and received approval from Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), Superintendent Barbara Thompson for the release of these students from their classroom. I was very surprised to hear this, as I was told by the mother of the child with a broken arm there were many migrant workers without jobs looking for work in that area. So on Thursday, I called the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and talked to the State Director for migrant workers. He had no knowledge of the shortage of workers at Aunt Fanny’s Canning Factory near Watertown. So the State Director contacted the migrant workers in that area and informed them of the “potential work at Aunt Fanny’s Canning Factory”. When the migrant workers approached Aunt Fanny’s Canning Factory on that same day, management refused to allow them to come in to apply for jobs. The Director of Work Force Development call me early that same afternoon and informed me the migrant workers were refused entry into the canning factory. The workers decided to “just hang out at the factory gate” as a way of showing their discontent. On Thursday evening, Fred, Rob and I went to Aunt Fanny’s to protest with the Migrant workers. Just before we arrived, the County Sheriff had arrested between 20 and 30 workers and was transferring them to the Jefferson County Jail. I guess Fred, Rob and I dodged the bullet that evening.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 15:25:06 +0000
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