QUOLKE’S CORNER #53
REAL CHANGE
Imagine if we all worked in a place where every teacher, paraprofessional, and related service provider wanted to work and where every parent wanted their child to go to school. Imagine a place where the conditions for teaching and learning were viewed as so critical to the education of children that nothing could prevent this from being a number one priority. Imagine if we worked in a place where teachers, paraprofessionals, parents, administrators, and the community developed 21st century curriculum and an achievement plan for their school that embodied the spirit of cooperation and buy-in for teaching and learning success. Imagine a place where this academic plan that was so important to every stakeholder that no one would dare to allow it to fail.
The CMSD had the opportunity to bring that type of change to CMSD – yet they chose not to. Through the much ballyhooed Transformation Plan, negotiations, and Race to the Top - CMSD had the opportunity to work with all stakeholders to bring about real, important, and significant change.
The transformation has been unveiled and negotiations have begun. We know the District’s shortfalls with the Transformation Plan and the next two weeks of negotiations will tell the tale of the District’s sincerity in bringing about reform for the sake of education or whether negotiations will just be an opportunity to bash educators and the Union.
There is no doubt that the labor management relations in this district are at an all-time low. In an effort to turn this tide, our AFT President Randi Weingarten came to Cleveland the week after the Transformation was announced. Dr. Sanders, Randi, and I met privately for a frank conversation that ended with Randi making a sincere offer to utilize the resources of the AFT to help improve labor relations - an offer to help us (CTU & CMSD) get together to do the hard work of education reform. We all want to work toward improving this district. Despite the many good things that happen in this district each day, I think we can all agree that we want more - we want what is best for our schools, our students, and our community. We want what I describe at the beginning of this Q Corner. But we will never get there without all of us CTU, CMSD, parents, and the community rolling up our sleeves and working together.
In Union,
David