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Mahomet-Seymour back to school today

Posted in NEWS by Neal Rauhauser on Monday, August 23, 2010 at 9:00 am

The teacher's strike in Mahomet filled the news Thursday and Friday. The collective action by 200 teachers and 120 support staff pushed through an agreement that had been in the works since February.

I nosed around a bit, looking for the inside scoop and I ended up talking to Eric Potter, the high school teacher elected to represent them in negotiations and a parent. The parent asked to remain anonymous out of concerns for the privacy of their child. Eric's take on the situation is that the Mahomet school system, one of the few outside the Chicago metro area to make the fifty best schools in the state list, is important to the 2,900 students, their parents, the teachers, and the board.

The parent I spoke with confirmed this perception. The school system, rich in extra-curricular activities and solidly performing in the fundamentals, is a point of pride for the community. I heard concerns over costs, which are on everyone's mind, but the only non-economic issue that came up were the many zero tolerance policies. I know this person and if they're saying things have become heavy handed in some areas of student discipline I'd be inclined to listen.

What was not heavy handed was the board's approach to this matter. Eric related that there were some personality rubs between various parties, which happens when people who disagree still have to come together and get things done. Overall the attitude is one of a community balancing property tax costs and the desire to have their school remain at the head of the class.

The board wished for small raises and a two year agreement, citing concerns over the economy. The teachers were very concerned over the health care costs and being locked in to the small raises. The one year contract was the compromise reached. Previous agreements have run as long as four years.

These are troubled economic times, but as a nation we would do well to have more collective bargaining, not less. The thirty years since the breaking of the Air Traffic Controllers Union have seen American manufacturing gutted by offshoring and real wages remained flat while the wealthiest few percent benefited from massive asset inflation. A town full of workers earning union wages is a town full of well kept homes, a business district without a blank store front in sight, and plenty of money for the finer things in education. Mahomet has held on to an excellent school system as the rest of the country has crumbled.

We ought to stir ourselves, as a nation, and make those opportunities our parents and grandparents had available to our children and grandchildren.

5 comments

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Elaine

08/23/10 at 08:08
#1

Well said.

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Tony C.

08/23/10 at 08:35
#2

Interesting factoids from Wikipedia:

Mahomet is 98.18% white. Med income $57,574.
Champaign is 73.16% white. Med income $32,795.
Urbana is 67.01% white. Med income $27,819.

If one were trying to avoid diversity and poor people, Mahomet might not be a bad place to do so.  Unfortunately kids raised in Mahomet will be as culturally clueless as I can be sometimes.  I can say from experience that it doesn’t work out well in today’s diverse society and business environment.

Surprised that teachers in such a coddled environment feel the need to fight for raises when almost everyone in private industries is getting the opposite.

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Neal Rauhauser

08/23/10 at 08:52
#3

 
   Everyone is getting a pay cut in private industry, so teachers should, too?
 
   Private industry pay cuts are driven by ruinous right wing policy we’ve faced for the last generation. Rather than screwing the last middle class bastion with such protections we should consider restoring them for everyone else?
 
    That’s a ripped from Fox News talking point ... I’m not going for it.

Rob McColley avatar featured_post

Rob McColley

08/23/10 at 08:29
#4

When I was growing up, the girls from Mahomet were especially fast. So cloistering is not without benefit.
 
Too bad Detroit never got any unions. Their storefronts are all boarded.

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Robert Knilands

08/23/10 at 08:07
#5

Great article.
The problem with saying the teachers should give in because of a bad economy is this: It opens the door to using that reason, either nationally or locally, again and again. In a system funded by property taxes, there is nothing to stop declining assessments from occurring year after year, and then that reason for no raises would be built in.
I was not aware of any “zero tolerance” policies in Mahomet, but I will say I am aware of someone who worked in another district, and the situation seemed to get progressively worse, through little fault of that person.
As much as I would like to be more specific, I have pledged that I will not. But if the Mahomet district has created a situation where teachers are “coddled,” as one poster says, then I say three cheers for Mahomet.
(For those looking to read between the lines, note I say if the district has created the situation. If a neighboring district has created a situation where people are moving to the Mahomet district, then that is not a situation the Mahomet district created.)

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