Letter to the Editor

I've been trying to write a letter to the editor...but it always comes out way over the 350 word limit. I'm still trying to cut it. (Thanks to those who've tried to help!) I'm just too picky.
Here is the original, sans cuts. It says all the things I want to say.

Will Teach For Fuel

Let me introduce myself. I was born here, attended k-12 at borough schools, got my Bachelor's at UAF, and then went back for a 5th year to get my teaching certificate. I'm a teacher.

I work at a great school with amazing coworkers and wonderful kids. I love my job. I don't know very many people who get up in the morning and are excited to go to work. I guess I'm lucky. If I had wanted to make "big bucks", I'd have been an engineer, or a process tech, but I didn't. Teaching is a calling, not a job, and I felt called. I'm a teacher.

Sitting at Homecoming recently, watching my kids run the ball, cheer, parade their floats, I cheered, laughed, and shouted until I was hoarse. I wanted to be able to tell them on Monday "great pass", or "impressive half-time routine", or congratulate them on winning the float contest. I'm proud of them, and happy for them. Do I get paid for that time in the stands, freezing my tail off? No. That's not why I do it. It's part of being a teacher. Being there for the kids, so they can see you in the stands, cheering them on, is part of who we are as teachers. It's what we do. We educate, we support, we protect, and we encourage. One teacher, a woman I highly respect, walked out with one of the royalty nominees in place of her parents, who couldn't attend. We're teachers.

Problem is, I'm also a wife, a daughter, a granddaughter. I have obligations, responsibilities, and bills just like everyone else. I have to pay for heating fuel, pay my mortgage, my electricity, and the day will come when I may have to make the choice between doing what I love and heating my home. Please don't make me make that choice. The kids can only lose.

How? The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District has walked away from the negotiating table. We, the teachers, are working without a contract. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Consumer Price Index, what cost $100 last year costs $105.66 this year. (5.66% increase in one year) $100 in goods and services in 2006 will cost you $108.67 today. (8.67% increase over two years) We aren't even asking the district to cover the cost of inflation. I'd like to make the same amount next year in buying power that I did this year, not less. I can't imagine that anyone else would want anything different.

The district's first offer was zero for three years. If inflation stays the same (and it might go up), next year my salary would be worth 5.66% less than it was this year, and again the next, and again. My $100 this year would cost me $117.96 in three years. I can't afford that. The district's second offer was, according to a recent article in the News Miner, 4.25% spread across three years. Please understand why I can't afford 4.25% spread across three years...when my bills will cost 17.96% more. The math hurts.

We're all hurting. Inflation is killing all of us. I love my kids...the freshmen, the seniors, the little seventh graders who are so excited about school. Please don't force me to choose between them and my heating bill. Everybody loses.

Write your school board members and tell them you support fair pay for teachers.

Thank you,

Angela Chiment, teacher

Protest Successful!

Friday was an in-service day, which meant that all teachers were supposed to gather at Lathrop at 8am for seminars and lectures related to teaching.

We showed up at 7 instead. Teachers gathered, picked up signs, and picketed up and down in front of Lathrop High School for a hour. There were 200 to 300 teachers walking, so many that we ran out of signs early on and started splitting double-sided signs so two people could carry them. We walked from the corner of Cowles down to the walkover bridge and back. Hundreds of teachers stood out in the cold morning air and waved at passing traffic. A solid line of people stood from the traffic light to the first light pole on the side of Airport road, with enough people left over to stand along Cowles and to march up and down in front of Lathrop, careful to never step foot on district property.

Signs like "Richest State, Poorest Teachers," "How do you spell relief? CONTRACT," "Working without a Contract!," and mine, "Will Teach for Fuel" dotted the morning air. I got several chuckles from fellow teachers, and one fellow told me I won the prize for the best sign. (Thank you!) I hope I made my point. Cars and trucks honked their support as they drove by, and we traded stories amongst ourselves (What are you doing at your school? We're walking in together at 7:30 at mine...) while we stood and waved.

Right before 8 o'clock, we put away the signs and gathered in front of the school, covering the front walk, the hill with the rock, and the lawn until, at a sign from our union president, we all began to file into the building. Hundreds of us bottlenecked at the doors until we had all passed through the entry and into the auditorium for the first meeting.

Looking around I saw so many union shirts (blue with our logo on the pocket), so many smiling but determined faces. When all of us gather like that, so much strength in one place, how can we help but win?

We spent the next two hours watching a couple of presentations on the anniversary of Alaska statehood, and then breaking into smaller seminars on interest topics. Two of the seminars I attended were very interesting, and the opportunity to talk with other math teachers about content is always helpful. None the less, I'd have rather been in the classroom with my kids.

The in-service was missing several presentations. People didn't feel comfortable presenting in the current climate. It was unfortunate, since I'd really wanted to see one of them, but I completely understand their feeling. It was a little uncomfortable being addressed by the district administration, and being at the conference at all. I can't imagine presenting at it. I didn't see it, but one of my friends said that as we all walked into the building that morning, the Superintendent (Dr. Nancy Wagner) tried to greet people. Apparently the crowd simply split and went around her, with an area of dead space surrounding her as she tried to make eye contact with the teachers. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say she is a very brave lady to try it. One would think she'd know better, but maybe she really doesn't understand that we are that upset. Dr. Wagner, we are very upset.

Maybe, just maybe, the sight of hundreds of teachers on the march will convince them.

Welcome

Welcome to Will Teach for Fuel. I am a teacher in the Fairbanks North Star Borough School district. Our teachers' union, the Fairbanks Education Association, is currently trying to negotiate our contract with the district, but the district has walked away from the table.

This blog will be a center for positive and supportive information for teachers and our supporters. Please feel free to email me with anything you would like to see posted.