I am not on teacher negotiations. These are my personal observations:
The
Board members negotiating on its behalf offered to meet all summer- June, July,
and August so that there would have been a settled contract
going into the new school year. Not one
meeting took place over the summer. That
wasn’t the Board’s doing. The blame lies
elsewhere.
The teacher union decided not to meet face to face
even once with the new negotiating team before the end of last school year.
Everyone can look at the timing for the next
negotiations meeting. It clearly
coincides with the upcoming election.
Certain parties clearly used it for political purposes.
Before I joined the Board, the LEA membership voted
down a proposed contract. I was very
surprised to learn the high percentage raise that was voted down. I was told something different when I ran
last November.
I hear some LEA members and some Board candidates
pandering to them state that money from the $7.5M administration building
should be used to settle contracts. It
is irresponsible to entice a special interest group with other people’s money.
When I ran last November, I had many ideas on how to
improve the working conditions and morale for all Lodi teachers. With all the distractions going on, those
ideas have been drowned out.
I believe the union in many ways set aside teacher
interests and instead focused on the interests of politicians. Here are some examples:
1) After I made
a motion to remove Mayor Carafa’s son for chronic absenteeism in April, Emil
Carafa and Debra Kwapniewski used the union membership to protest outside of
two Board members’ homes. They used the
union membership to fight their political battles at the May meeting. Was that in the interest of the teachers?
2) Debra
Kwapniewski and Gail Oxfeld have filed multiple frivolous complaints targeting two
members that don’t rubberstamp Lodi’s old time political machine. They squander other teachers’ union
dues. Is that in the interest of the
teachers?
3) Union members
have cheered “nepotism” at our meetings and cheered for Mr. Quatrone trying to select
his own negotiating committee for his own contract. Union members have spent more time advocating
for the “machine” at our meetings than they have for the teachers. Is that in the interest of the teachers?
Everyone should work together to settle a new teacher
contract ASAP. But the misinformation is
out of control. The propaganda is over
the top. The pandering by some Board
candidates is a turnoff.
At
this time of the year, we should be focusing on students and education. A political machine and a special interest
group don’t want that to happen.
