Last Thursday on my way into the Board meeting I had a brand new experience: crossing a picket line. There were a good number of District teachers outside the building protesting and picketing the District’s failure to put forward an “acceptable” compensation proposal.<\/p>\n
The action continued inside, with a number of teachers using their right to speak to the Board during the public comment period to chastise the Board as a whole, the superintendent and individual trustees. I won’t go into detail about everything that was said, except to say there appeared to be a lot of misinterpretation behind the comments. As well as over-reliance on the accuracy of news media accounts.<\/p>\n
But there was one comment made where a response won’t be just rehashing the same viewpoints. The head of the union, Dan Liner, said our job, as trustees, was to represent the community and the teachers.<\/p>\n
This is incorrect, and, if it is a widely-held view among teachers, a potential source of confusion and angst.<\/p>\n
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In law, trustees represent the people in the community who have an opportunity to vote for them or against them. If a teacher is a voter in San Carlos, then he or she is included in that pool…as a community member, not a District employee.<\/p>\n
Trustees do not represent teachers. They must be concerned about teacher interests because they can’t deliver a high-quality educational program to the community without teachers. But that’s a different kind of relationship than representing someone’s interests.<\/p>\n
I could see where not understanding this could lead to anger among teachers when we do something contrary to their interests. It’d look like we were failing in a duty to them. But we’re not, because our duty is owed to the community, not the teachers.<\/p>\n
Personally, there’s a different take on who trustees represent that I like much better than the legal one: we represent all the kids in the community who are, or could be, enrolled in our schools. True, they don’t get to vote on who becomes a trustee, but it is their interests, ultimately, that we represent. I know I ran to make things better for kids, and I’d be willing to bet that’s why everyone else who’s on the Board ran, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last Thursday on my way into the Board meeting I had a brand new experience: crossing a picket line. There were a good number of District teachers outside the building protesting and picketing the District’s failure to put forward an … Continue reading