Dear GL:

I read your posting about the Hollywood debacle, the buying of Hollywood stars on the Walk of Fame. It speaks to a problem that is happening in almost every segment of our culture. Basically, people and institutions all too often lack integrity.

I am not a blogger but I did write a letter to our local editor out here in California about an issue that has been bothering us.

First, the background–


Our district teachers went on strike today. Last year, they essentially took no raise and were told that they would be compensated this year after the district administration was able to turn finances around. Then, earlier this year, the school board gave the assistant superintendents a 16.84% raise. When it came to negotiation time, they offered the teachers 3% because we are legitimately in trouble fiscally in the district. The teachers were outraged and an independent fact finder was brought in. She recommended a 5% raise for the teachers and the teachers countered that they wanted a 16.84% raise. They worked it to some kind of a kludged 8% offer, everybody got mad over the way it was packaged and we had the walk-out. So, Tuesday, I sent this letter to the editor:

Our District Administrators are correct to make fiscal management a top priority, because without it we have real potential to fall under state control. However, leadership requires integrity that exceeds the expectation placed on those who are asked to follow. Leaders must be willing to ask no more sacrifice than they are willing to give, something these administrators glaringly avoided by accepting higher raise percentages than they were able to offer the teachers. Now our situation has devolved into an unseemly battle spreading through the community. To salvage the situation, an effort has been made to offer more of a raise percentage to the teachers than the independent analyst advised, compensating for the error rather than solving it. The farther this battle goes, the less likely next year’s bond will pass in a community becoming jaundiced and apathetic watching the spectacle.

Do the right thing and voluntarily return the raises and share the pain with those you would lead. Accept the percentage raise that you can afford to give the teachers, not a penny more, and in one grand move you regain leadership of both this system and the community.

Short term gratification or long term solution; it’s your choice.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not “on the side of the teachers.” They know the fiscal mess, too, yet the union saw an opening and took it. Still…

Best,

Conrad Hake,

Hayward, California
[tags]teachers, leadership, letters to the editor, California schools, integrity, Hollywood Walk of Fame, culture, Hayward CA, Hayward CA The Daily Review,Hayward Unified School District[/tags]