You Ride the Camel, Then You Give the Camel a Ride?

When my first-grade Daisy Girl Scout troop was working on the idea of being honest and fair, we spent a lot of time talking about the idea that fair does not equal the same.  They shared with me the idea that they were taught that if fair meant same then we would ride the camel and then we would give the camel a ride.  That would be fair right? 

Monday night’s Oswego 308 school board meeting was a disappointment when they allowed the idea of fair to be confused with same.  The board introduced a motion to have the district administrators pay for 20% of their healthcare beginning in 2012/13 school year.  ‘All for equality’ was how one board member put it with her hesitant yes vote.  

Other surrounding districts were investigated and found to pay 90-100% of their administrators’ healthcare.  However, several on the school board did not want to compare themselves to other districts.  They wanted to compare to the teachers.  That would be fair-all for equality right?

So, I wonder the following simple questions:

1.  Why is Mrs. Pasteris questioning blanket raises for the administrators?  That is how the teachers are treated.  The best teacher and the worst teacher get the same raise following a chart.  Every year they get a raise.  No questions asked by the board.  It would only be fair for the administrators—right?  All about equality.

2.  When the board asked the high schools to crank out specs for additions in the last few weeks of the school year, I am assuming several subs were used to cover the teachers for some of the meetings.  I know that my four children had a number of subs (greater than 5 each) in May even though the teachers were at school.  Administrators’ workloads weren’t altered to help with the addition of this requirement.  No extra help was brought in for them.  We would have to change that to be fair and equal—right?

3.  I hope the board will begin instituting the duty free lunch and the limit in number of mandatory meetings similar to those in the OEA contract.  I know that when I was an administrator, I had maybe a dozen duty free lunches in three years.   Also, meetings weren’t voluntary. 

I know that several reading this are thinking that the school administration is paid so much more than the teachers so what are you defending them for?  First of all, many of our ‘administrators’ are deans and assistant principals.  They are paid about what they would have made on the teacher scale and in several cases less than.  The healthcare is a perk for getting people in these positions.

Second, if we don’t keep and continue to hire quality building administrators, the building environment will not be as positive for the teachers.  Then, they will not stay either.  This will create a negative and ever changing environment for our children.

I think this school board has done a lot of things to increase communication and transparency with the community.  They are working hard and trying their best.  However, I think this decision showed personal agendas and played out like a sneak attack to those in the room. 

Several board members expressed that 20% was never discussed.  The OEA clause seems like an attempt to try to get language in for upcoming teacher contract negations and not an equality issue.  We will see.  If I am wrong, we should see more of the givens to teachers given to administrators.  If I am right, this will be the only change made.  How many rides will they give the camel?