Teachers To Picket at Framingham Common Today
Massachusetts Teachers Association tells Framingham "We are with you 110 percent in your fight for a fair contract."
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With another mediation session scheduled for tomorrow, March 7, the members of the Framingham Teachers Association are scheduled to picket along the Framingham Centre Common today from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
As of Monday, some members of the Association have been without a contract for 185 days and others for almost 250 days.
Last Tuesday, the Association held a rally on the steps of the Memorial Building.
Hundreds of Association members and a handful of students attend the rally. Also in attendance was Tim Sullivan, the vice president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
Sullivan told those assembled "I'm here today to tell you - the teachers and education professionals of the Framingham Teachers Association - that we are with you 110 percent in your fight for a fair contract."
"The 110,000 members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association stand with you in your struggle to keep class size low and giving your students - the children of Framingham - the knowledge and skills they need to make it in the world," said Sullivan. "We get it! This struggle is about so much more than finances. This is a philosophical struggle about values and the importance of public education. The members of the Framingham School Committee need to recognize the value that each and every one of you bring to the classroom and schools each and every day."
At the rally, Sullivan offered the Framingham Teachers Association a bus to travel to Beacon Hill to lobby for more state funds for education. That bus leaves from Shoppers World Tuesday, March 12 at 3 p.m.
Sullivan told those assembled for the rally "NEA members across the nation stand with you in your fight for great public education. Stay strong and united!"
"We are with you every step of the way. And we are going to continue fighting because students' future depends on it," said Sullivan. "These kids get just one chance at an education and we are not going to short-change them - or any of you. I comment you for the work you are doing every single day and I commit to you that I will remain with you every step until you get the fair contract that you and your students deserve. Keep fighting! There's too much at stake to give up now!"
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Framingham Centre Common
Edgell Rd & Vernon St, Framingham, MA -
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Shoppers World
1 Worcester Rd, Framingham, MA
Derek from Framingham
11:42 am on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
The usual question which I always ask but never gets answered. Teachers why is it fair for you (and all the other public sector workers) to get a raise from the many in the private sector who have gone without one (or gone with even less) for years?
Nouna Avva
1:34 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
I think it is a lost cause..they seriously think they deserve it after seeing the scores on the MCAS and how far off kids are. Those are results of the teaching that goes on, if these so called great teachers who want to raise my taxes because they think they deserve a raise. Should think twice about how they are teaching, this reflects on them. One week they teach them one way to do a math problem then the next week a different way.
It sickens me every morning when I drive my high schooler to school. They are there with signs and big smiles. It's setting a bad example to the students,if you witch long enough you will get what you want. Well they have lost mine and hundreds of parents support through out this town because they are making fools of them selves. The high school students think they are jokes. We are with you Derek, but it won't get answered.
Kim Poness
1:46 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2013
And now they are gathering personal information about the school committee members? Place of worship? Gym membership? Children's names and ages? I am officially ashamed of the teachers in this town.
SameOld
2:23 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Teaching used to be considered a public service job. Not anymore. Teachers getting COLA raises along with step raises when private sector workers, if they have a job, get 2 percent. You know, the private sector who pay the salaries of the public sector.