Tomorrow is an important day for the teachers of Bayonne as negotiations continue in urgency. We have been fighting for a fair contract for a VERY long time. The thought of starting school in one week without a contract is too burdensome to bear. I want to remind my colleagues of our unity and to educate those who have entered this scene only recently...Bayonne Teachers are UNITED in our defense of the integrity of this profession. The ones that are left, that is. Almost two years ago, we packed the Bayonne High School auditorium at our wits end and asked to be heard! Attached is a reminder of one cold January evening...the new year was 2013 and we were already 3 years without a contract. The message is the same, but since then a new program was introduced and an Academy was built, more flagrantly nepotistic, questionable and costly promotions were made, administrative raises were unanimously agreed upon, unfunded mandates were funded dutifully, copy machines were purchased for every elementary school when we never had them before, a mayor was ousted and the same board of education sings the same old tune...we dont have the money! The speech below is as pertinent today as it was over two years ago when I had already had enough of attending board meetings like a good little team player teacher, with my mouth closed and my ears bleeding. Please understand that this is breaking us down and we need your support more than ever to DEMAND that this contract be settled before your children walk into school in one week. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1/24/13 My name is Jennifer Circkirillo. I am a 1st grade teacher at Horace Mann School; a part-time personal trainer; a youth softball coach; a forensics (public speaking) coach; a life-long resident of Bayonne; a graduate of Bayonne High School; a mother of a daughter in the Bayonne school system; a Bayonne homeowner; and a taxpayer. 11 years ago I sat in Mr. Craig’s office to discuss the exciting prospects of my new career as an elementary school teacher. There were no openings available for me in the Early Childhood Department but I was encouraged to take a position as a technology teacher. We talked about the challenges of my career change and how my experience in business and with business applications like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access would make me an asset as computer teacher for the Bayonne Board of Education. Finally, we got down to the nitty gritty where we discussed salary and I was introduced to this strange and unusual piece of paper…the likes of which I had never seen before. He called it the “Salary Guide!” As I looked down the Salary Guide with Mr. Craig, my eyes widened in shock and disbelief and to this very day I think there may have been an audible GASP because something prompted Mr. Craig to look at me and say with encouragement, “don’t worry…it will improve!” At that point he explained how the Bayonne Board of Education and the teacher’s union were about to settle a contract. I left his office elated and confused, encouraged but worried, confident yet doubtful. I couldn’t get that “SALARY GUIDE” home quick enough. I needed to poke it, prod it, dissect it and understand this strange new animal I would rely on for sustenance for the rest of my career and life. 11 years ago, there were 15 steps on the salary guide. Each step represented a year of work. Every year for 11 years there was a mere $200 increase per year…per step on the SALARY GUIDE. I nearly fainted. Coming from business, I was accustomed to an annual raise for a job well done. I was accustomed to 100% tuition reimbursement…that’s how I put myself through college. I was accustomed to a hefty holiday bonus for going above and beyond…and I always did and always will. As I looked further down the SALARY GUIDE, steps 13-15 jumped out at me…each step (each year) carrying with it the promise of approximately $9,000. I immediately got to work calculating what this meant to me and my then 3-year-old daughter. I sketched two empty columns next to the column that represented each step of my salary…one column on the left that would represent MY age and one column on the right that would represent my daughter’s age. It would be a LOOOOOOOONGGG road to that bubble step number 13 and an even longer journey to step #15 (maximum salary). Coming from business I had trouble wrapping my mind around this SALARY GUIDE. I couldn’t understand why teachers weren’t paid in even increments along the way…why we had to wait, 13-15 years in order to make a living then competitive wage? Regardless…I took the job. I calculated that my daughter would be entering college the year I hit maximum salary and although it was clear that I would NOT be able to save a dime along the way, I considered step #15 (year 15) money in the bank. I made concessions. I planned my life around my new career. A career that would afford me more time with my young daughter… a career that promised me the ability to use my creativity, personality, energy and empathy to make a difference in the lives of Bayonne’s youth. This was the perfect career for me…for the person I was and for the situation I was in as a single mother. I carefully weighed my options and made a conscious career move and choice to become a teacher and a slave to the “SALARY GUIDE!” Over the years I’ve had mixed emotions about my move from the private sector into the public. I’ve come to realize that out of all the public employees teachers are the most highly educated and least respected. Police officers, firefighters, probation officers, and even mail carriers get paid overtime, reach maximum salary way sooner, never go much over a year without a contract, move on their salary guides during negotiations, have generous vacation and sick time and rarely (if ever) have steps added to their “SALARY GUIDES!” I’ve also noticed an interesting phenomenon coming from people in the private sector. When the economy is good, they feel sorry for us teachers and calls us “foolish” for putting in so much extra time, effort and spending our own money. They often say “I could never do your job…you couldn’t pay me enough for the responsibility of dealing with kids all day!” When the economy is bad, these same people want our jobs, call us babysitters and envy our summers off. I don’t know many teachers who can afford the summers off. As far as I am concerned, I’m laid off in the summers. In the private sector when a construction worker is laid off because of his seasonal employment, he can collect unemployment. I have to scramble for a summer job which is hard to find so most teachers work two jobs all year round for at least 13 years… because of the bizarre construct of the SALARY GUIDE! AT THE END OF THE DAY, nobody likes the SALARY GUIDE…least of all the teachers! AT THE END OF THE DAY, everyone knows that teaching is a special job and it takes a special kind of person to do it. We don’t answer to one boss, we answer to many. We do enough overtime prepping our classrooms, grading papers and planning in our own homes that if calculated would add up to at least one month of our two months off in the summer and our families and friends can attest to it. AT THE END OF THE DAY, I have been working 11 years as a teacher and I have honored that commitment. I have been without a contract for almost 3. I make approximately $1,000 more than a first year teacher. My bills have gone up and my pay has gone down because now I am paying more into my health benefits (a concession I can understand). What I can’t understand is why my taxes were JUST raised and teachers were blamed for it while I was offered a contract that adds three more steps, three more years to the SALARY GUIDE I built my life on! Three more years which literally robs my daughter of her college savings!! AT THE END OF THE DAY, I voted for a democrat! I never expected my local government and SELECTED not ELECTED board of education to jump on the teacher-hating, Republican-Christie bandwagon with such blatant disregard and gusto! AT THE END OF THE DAY, YOU are not honoring YOUR commitment…you have moved the goal posts in the middle of the game! It’s unethical. It’s insulting. AT THE END OF THE DAY, I’m not asking you to make the pizza pie bigger, Mr. Masone, I am asking you to resize and redistribute the slices. Make the piece of the pie for the students bigger by giving a healthier slice to their teachers. Stop spending my tax dollars that are earmarked for education like we are in a booming economy!!! On gaudy bathrooms, lining grammar schools with granite, fixing a boiler that isn’t even broken yet, generously offering to foot the bill for all high school AP tests, paying a retired business administrator to come back as a consultant, commissioning a pricey artist to make sketches of our schools and giving friends and family undue costly promotions over more seasoned and qualified applicants. These are flagrant insults when you are claiming not to have the money we already know you did have to pay your teachers! At the end of the day, I ask you to honor the salary guide. Don’t add steps. Keep us moving on it. We don’t expect huge raises…we understand we all have to make some concessions. If you want to fix the salary guide, start with new hires and grandfather everyone else in. Do the right thing. If I took $80,000 out of your savings account, you would call me a thief!!! At the end of the day, I will not send my honor student daughter who is an asset to this community to a high school that does not support, value and prioritize its teachers because I know all too well IT’S ABOUT THE STUDENTS and good teachers make for successful students and YOU CAN’T PUT STUDENTS FIRST IF YOU PUT TEACHERS LAST!
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 03:06:38 +0000
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