It's day 3 of students back in schools in Medford, Oregon. Overall, it's day 6 of the Medford Education Association strike against District 549c. Traffic on 'larger' social media has been fairly low. #strikemedford didn't really trend (yet) on Twitter. Facebook traffic is such that 80 "likes" seems about the upper limit on comments related to the event. Nevertheless, I'm still sitting in a side room in the Strike HQ and NOT teaching American Studies, Intro to Theater, Advanced Theater, Stagecraft, or advising senior projects. I am not providing technical consultation to the students needing sound and lighting for upcoming concerts or dances, and I am not building set for or directing Noises Off, though we have already paid for the rights and scripts and bought lumber and hardware to make the two story tall, revolving set. (As a self-serving aside, feel free to make a donation to my theater to offset the revenue loss that is looming - we've also missed the audition window for the spring musical, forcing a cancellation there. Noises will likely move into the May dates and the stage will be dark at the end of Feb. Link is in my sig).
For the latest on the event, go to the media aggregation below the Squiggle d'Orange.
Of huge importance (from the educator's perspective): movement from the editorial board of the local fish-wrapper...
...the school district's leadership can take some real steps to cover the lack of respect that teachers say they are feeling in their contentious contract negotiations. That "respect issue" has taken a back seat to finances in the discussions, but it's very real to teachers who have seen class sizes grow, duties expand and wages stagnate.
With that backdrop, amid a strike that grows more contentious by the day, it's been puzzling to us that the district has chosen to take on not only financial issues, but also workplace issues — prep time in particular — that affect the quality of the teachers' work lives.
The
horn-honking tickets have been dismissed.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Andrea Carlson confirmed that the tickets were dismissed, saying they were written under an incorrect state statute.
The Oregon Revised Statute used in Monday's citations was ORS 815.230, which is the defective-horn violation, Carlson said. The correct ORS would have been 815.225, which covers violations of use limits on sound equipment, she said.
The tickets will not be re-issued, she said.
A Mail Tribune article Tuesday noted that Oregon Court of Appeals records show appellate judges threw out the tickets in three occasions — two in Eugene in 1992 and another in Multnomah County in 2006 — after ruling they violated Article 1, Section 8, of the Oregon Constitution guaranteeing "free expression of opinion."
Even so, the law remains on the books, having never been repealed by the Oregon Legislature or by the initiative process.
The head of the American Civil Liberties Union in Oregon had offered his organization's help in fighting the citations if necessary.
There are signs of
movement.
Progress was made during a marathon bargaining session Wednesday between the Medford School District and its striking teachers' union, representatives of both parties said.
The sides, which were set to resume negotiations at 9 a.m. today, exchanged proposals as members met face-to-face briefly in another round of state-mediated talks.
There was an issue with crowding and
fire code, and the overall situation
in the classrooms is getting a lot of ink. however that fire code thing should be a non-issue, as the District attendance dropped on the second day of 'classes.'
Attendance districtwide was down to 52 percent, with 6,311 of 12,113 students attending classes Wednesday.
Kids are
worried about AP exams.
11:08 AM PT: Face to face meeting happened today, the kick off negotiations. The murmurs are positive.
11:15 AM PT: On the Labor side of this, IBEW has been very high profile in support of this effort, with members from Locals coming up from Sacramento and flying in from Wisconsin. We've also seen a lot of support from the Nurses, the Firefighters, the Seasonal Workers, the SEIU, AFSCME, and of course other Education locals from all over the state (and probably more that I haven't been in the room to be aware of). #unionstrong
Fri Feb 14, 2014 at 6:54 AM PT: In breaking news, DailyKos readership plummets to under 100 :) /snark :)