Convention airs teachers’ concerns
Teachers from across the state are seeing the economy’s effect in their classrooms, and 2,500 of them are comparing stories in Buffalo.
They are in town for the annual convention of New York State United Teachers, the state’s largest union.
They will be hearing about education and budget issues from Sens. Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, State Education Commissioner Richard Mills, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, State Sens. Dale Volker, R-Depew, and Antoine Thompson, D-Buffalo, and Mayor Byron W. Brown.
And the teachers are telling each other stories about hungry children, and how more and more students are talking about Mom or Dad losing their jobs. Sometimes it’s the teachers who are being laid off.
While 14 teaching positions are slated to be eliminated this fall in Mary Kruchinski’s school district, it is the plight of her pupils that concerns the member of the Salem Teachers Association in rural Washington County. She recalled how one of her third-graders told her the morning she was to take a state assessment test how hungry she was. “How is she going to take that test?” said Kruchinski, adding that she took the girl to the cafeteria for breakfast. “These kids are hungry. Because we’re a rural school, there isn’t the safety net.”
Many teachers unions are bringing food to schools for local food pantries and coming up with supplies for their students. “I went through 72 pencils in three days,” said North Tonawanda math teacher Michelle Watson. “We’re seeing a lot of students who don’t have supplies because it’s not the priority.”
The economic troubles are hitting outside the classroom, too. North Tonawanda teachers have been working two years without a contract, and the district and union are under added pressure to negotiate a new contract in the current economic climate.
Still, if their school districts ask for contract concessions, many teachers would think twice about it. They are under the same stress as others who are being squeezed, and they have the added stress of trying to keep improving academics in the classroom, said NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi.
Many teachers unions have been asked recently to reopen contracts, and most have said no, he said.
Some unions are working with districts to restructure benefits, and more than 75 percent of the union’s members pay a portion of their health care insurance, he said.
There are no major businesses left in Jim Chase’s Adirondack Central School District.
“You wonder in 20 years if the community will be there,” he said.
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