Reformatted, emphasis mine: SHOT: Teacher shortages to close Nashua schools Monday and Tuesday.
Nashua students will get an extra-long weekend after Friday’s snow day — but they’ll have to pay for it in June. Schools will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, Jan. 10 and 11, according to a statement from Interim Superintendent Garth McKinney, because the district will not have enough teachers, staff or substitutes.
Staff shortages had been piling up all week, with more than 200 teachers and staff out on Thursday, many because of COVID-19. Student absenteeism has also been high this year, McKinney said. He hoped everyone could benefit from a little break.
Many does not mean all. Does the above have anything to do with the below? I’ll say it: sick out (being able to blame it on COVID)?
The Nashua School District and the city’s teachers union have agreed to more than $11 million in pay raises for teachers over the next four years, but contract negotiators can’t agree on whether the union president should be eligible for health insurance through the district, even if the costs are funded by the union.
Contract negotiations between the school board and the union stalled last month. The two sides agreed to bring in a mediator this week, but announced their impasse Thursday. Teachers have spoken during school board meetings about the stress they have been under this year, with many saying they were thinking about retiring early or leaving the district, ratcheting up pressure on the board.
And that’s all between the city and the union. You know, if I was on the School Board, I’d be taking the above as a threat upon Nashua students. It just proves that Teachers Unions are about Power and that Unions are a Special Interest Group in and for itself.
And who is paying for it? The learning that students are NOT receiving but teachers are still being paid by the taxpayers.
And I shall repeat – NO ONE is entitled to a job anywhere. If you don’t like it, leave. Stop your complaining. Most of us are already tired of this same schtick of “we’ll leave” – it is the equivalent of a toddler’s temper tantrum complete with the tears, screaming, and kicking and pounding the floor. The School Board ought to say WORK or “you’re fired.”
Hangover: and then there is this malfeasance by the reporter
The sticking point is a comparatively small one — the union president’s eligibility for health insurance and a state pension. The union president, whom teachers elect every two years, is a Nashua teacher who takes a two-year approved leave. For more than a decade, the president has stayed on the school district’s health insurance plan and remained eligible for a state pension, with the union reimbursing the school and the city for their contributions. The current plan does not cost city taxpayers.
Get that? With “the union reimbursing the school and the city for their contributions. The current plan does not cost city taxpayers. Again – the union reimburses the District and City.
Er, WHERE is that “reimbursement money” coming from, I ask? Of COURSE it is coming from the taxpayers unless the Union is into counterfeiting US Currency or hacking the bank systems. To say otherwise is extremely disingenuous and misleading.
In a statement, the school board said they wanted the union to directly provide benefits for the president, instead of reimbursing the district.
The union, in a statement, said they thought the board’s stance was an effort to interfere with and weaken the union, by making it difficult for a teacher to serve more than one term as president.
I applaud the District in realizing that they shouldn’t be subsidizing or making it easier for the Union to screw with them come contract negotiations and work “environments”. They recognized that the Union ISN’T part of the District – why SHOULDN’T a separate entity take care of its own employee(s)?
And the union, full of “Highly Qualified teachers” really think that they can keep freeloading on the District / City? That’s rather selfish. Take care of your OWN employee (even if elected or not by the membership).
And what a statement – the District isn’t interfering, it is trying to SEPARATE from the union. Forcing the Union to go and provide benefits to their employee is weakening the union? My gosh, the chutzpah!
No, Nashua Teachers Union – that’s called “adulting”, taking care of your own. Are you really telling everyone that you aren’t capable of doing that? Or unwilling to do so?
Either one is a really bad look. Er, why am I the only one willing to point that out?
Josie Albertson-Grove ought to be taken to the woodshed for misleading taxpayers AND her readers for sloppy writing. It’s pretty much akin to Biden saying “and it will cost nothing for this bill.”
