November 18th, 2024

Strike Day 6

Josephine Fleetwood, mother of a 2018 West Albany grad, holds a bright sign during Sunday's rally. "Teachers are important," she said. "We need them for our future."

Parents lead rally for teachers

Ruthie Hochstetler Epp, a South Shore, second-grader, spoke during the rally. "I have some of the best teachers in the world at South Shore," she said. "They help me when I am struggling to learn or when I need help with big emotions. They always take time for me. And I know that' it's a hard job sometimes. I would like to get back to school. I miss my class and I miss my teacher." At left is Ruthie's mom, Shanda Hochstetler.

   The Greater Albany Education Association held a number a strike rallies last week. On Sunday — Day 6 of the teachers strike — it was parents' turn, as they led a rally in support of the GAEA.
  Several hundred people gathered midafternoon in the rain in the Keller Williams parking lot to hear speakers, including parents, a student and a teacher.
  Jennifer Stadstad, a P.E. teacher at Calapooia Middle School and a member of the GAEA’s bargaining team, took a break from Sunday’s mediation session to provide an update.
  Stadstad said there were five tentative agreements on "smaller issues" Friday night, and the two sides mediated for 12 hours Saturday,
   So far, according to a Saturday update on the GAPS Facebook page, 21 of 34 articles presented for bargaining have been tentatively agreed to. Among them is prep time. The district has agreed to expand secondary teacher prep time to one full class period per day to begin the 2025-26 school year.
   Class size remains a sticking point, however.
   “We need smaller classes,” Stadstad told the crowd. “When we’re talking about our class-size options, we want the district to be creative, which means looking at all different angles. Instead of hiring new teachers, we want to look at adding aides to classrooms. … We also talked about looking at the schools and their transfer data. It doesn’t mean that if your student is on a transfer that they’re going to get yanked in the middle of the year. It just means that they won’t accept more transfers into that school in the next year. So I would love it if you guys could dispel some of those rumors that are out there on Facebook.”
​   School will be canceled for the fifth time on Monday.
   Picket lines will start at 7:30 a.m. Monday at schools across the district. A community rally is planned for 1 p.m. at Monteith Riverpark.

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