Time to Get Back to Our New "Normal"

Bongo is happy that the members of the HEA voted to ratify the contract yesterday. It wasn’t a unanimous vote, but Bongo didn’t expect it to be.

Here is the Northwest Herald's story.

The board will vote on Monday to accept the contract. That vote isn’t expected to be unanimous either given the make up of the school board right now.

Bongo was thrilled to see kids at bus stops, athletes at practices, and kids at play practices and band practices. In many ways, things were back to normal yesterday.

Or were they?

Parents, angry over the strike and about the behavior of some people, will move forward and most likely will be less supportive than they’ve been in the past.

Teachers, many who said they were shocked at the fact that while picketing they were yelled at, cursed at and flipped off, said that walking on that picket line was the worst experience of their lives.

Parents will probably look at teachers a bit differently and teachers will probably look at parents a bit differently.

It is a broken community and only time will heal it. A lot of time. Bongo said it would be this way, but evidently some people didn’t believe him.

Cyndi Wyss of the Northwest Herald had this to say in her editorial today.

She hit the nail on the head with this comment:

What's been lost on many school districts is that we – the taxpayers – are their employers. And our financial health should affect their spending decisions.

Beyond that statement, Bongo agrees with some, but not all, of what Ms Wyss had to say in her editorial.

From the very beginning Bongo said he loved teachers and thought they deserved good raises. Bongo has said that teachers are underpaid. Bongo has said they work hard and have a very important job. But Bongo dug his paws in and said no contract should cost the District more money than it brings in during any given year.

But in the end, personalities got in the way, in Bongo thinks that the negotiations became more about “winning” than negotiating a fair contract. Don't get Bongo wrong... the contract on the table right now is a pretty good one. But lost in the middle of the fight were the children. It really was a shame.

But now, the negotiations are over and Bongo will return his focus to other areas of interest in District 158.

Bongo encourages everyone to read Bongo’s focus statement in the red box to the right of this post. This blog was not created as a mechanism to target the HEA leadership; the purpose of this blog has always been to bring the truth to light in a district where there are people in high places who are doing bad things. It was only when the HEA leadership started behaving very badly that Bongo turned his focus onto them.

Go back to the beginning of the blog back in January and you’ll see what the real purpose of the blog is. In fact, Bongo would guess that the HEA and Bongo have much in common with regard to the real purpose of this site.

Meanwhile,

GO RAIDERS! BEAT JACOBS!