“Rally For Fairness” – Solidarity to Descend on Central Falls
[This fascinating e-mail was forwarded to me tonight. It has presumably been circulated to all members of NEARI.]
As you are aware, Commissioner of Education Gist and Superintendent Gallo of the Central Falls School District are set to fire all 74 of the district’s high school teachers tomorrow. In one of the most blatant acts of anti-unionism in decades, the leadership of the district has decided, instead of providing the resources necessary for a quality education, to point fingers and blame teachers for the administration’s lack of appropriate action. Join with teachers, parents, students, union members and concerned individuals at a rally tomorrow to support the Central Falls teachers.
The Rally for Fairness is tomorrow, Tuesday, February 23, 5 PM, at Jenks Park on Broad Street in Central Falls. It is time your voice is heard in the struggle to protect collective bargaining and ensure every student has the resources available to succeed. The district is moving forward with this inappropriate and illegal action even though, following teacher evaluations over the past two years, not one was put on corrective action. It is moving forward without following due process, engaging in nothing more than a union busting tactic.
For more information go to www.CentralFallsKidsDeserveBetter.com. There you can sign a petition in support of the teachers and learn more about the schools in our state’s smallest community. You can also stay updated by following Central Falls High on Twitter and checkingthe NEARI website, www.neari.org, tomorrow for the latest on the rally and directions. We encourage you to follow NEARI on Facebook and President Larry Purtill on Twitter for this and other valuable information.
Your local president has been invited to a meeting at NEARI this Thursday, February 25, with Commissioner Gist. It is an opportunity for him/her to ask questions and raise concerns about the events taking place in Central Falls and Rhode Island’s Race to the Top application. You can also see your local president, if you have not already done so, to lend your name to those of your colleagues who are concerned about the content and process involved in submitting the application. Concerns over the lack of collaboration in writing the grant, the use of test scores to make up 51% of a teacher’s evaluation, automatic termination after two ineffective years of evaluation, elimination of the I Plan and certification tied directly to evaluation, and the drive to make one out of every five schools in Rhode Island a charter or mayoral academy are just a few of the issues in the grant application.
It is up to you to speak out against these hasty political changes that will not improve student performance. NEARI supports highly effective teachers in every classroom, a strong evaluation system, and appropriate professional development. What we don’t want to see are teachers and staff blamed for a lack of resources and a weak political will to do what is right. Join with your colleagues so you do not become the next Central Falls, East Providence or Glocester.
“NEARI supports highly effective teachers in every classroom”
Pfffttt..hahaha!
Could this be a scheme by Crowley to push out AFT as the teachers’ union in CF?Masquerading as solidarity?
Will NEARI be providing a stipend for those who attend the rally?
Let me know when the Rally for Anti-Unionism begins. It’s time OUR voice was heard in the struggle of free market loving Americans to encourage each and every citizen to reach their god given potential in an effort to spur the economic growth and well being that not only benefits themselves but society as a whole.
We should be rallying in support of Dr. Gallo and Commissioner Gist, two women who have the courage to do what the men before them never had the guts to do.
The problem is not the teachers. It is their union leaders. These people have not the slightest compassion for or interest in the quality of student education, they simply use it as the ploy for collecting dues from teachers who have no choice but to pay them. It would be interesting to know, if the secrecy and retribution of the union leaders could be avoided, just how many teachers would leave the union immediately. I believe that most want to be regarded as professionals; they now work under a contract that considers them assembly-line workers and our children as robots.
Rampant, run-away municipal unionism is destroying the financial fabric of this country, and taking the future of our childre with it. Someone has to take up the cause of justice and fairness, and we owe Dr. Gallo and Commissioner Gist a huge vote of support and thanks for their willingness to “fight the good fight.”
MUNICIPAl UNIONISM is destroying the country. Are you serious? So it’s not the jobs leaving the country for ,many reasons, or the runaway cost of healthcare, or the broken families or the billions spent on a unneeded war but the municipal unions that are destroying the nation. That means if we get rid of the unions we should be able to return tot he America of Ward and June Clever and Potsy and Richie. Problem solved.
–” That means if we get rid of the unions we should be able to return tot he America of Ward and June Clever and Potsy and Richie. Problem solved.”
The problem wouldn’t be solved. But it would a great, and major, first step.
Just ask the folks in the states that are being driven to bankruptcy by public unions: California, Michigan, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey …
These unions went for Obammy. Why did he send his chief education policy hoodie down here to step on their kunckles? Could it be that they have some INTERNAL info the the teacher union support he got was a mile long and an inch deep?