Steering Committee

Deborah Hirshfield on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 1:02 pm 



After giving sixteen years to CPS as an outstanding,award winning art and music teacher, I am now a Day to Day Sub with no benefits and virtually no work due to the enormous influx of new displaced teachers being put into cadre positions by the Board. It should be criminal that despite paying full Union dues last year while I grossed $19,000 vs nearly $59,000, I am now completely trashed, thrown out and I could go on and on about what the New and Improved principals do, telling me I have a job, then using me as a sub (and a janitor) to get their schools ready for Parent Night: AKA Marconi Academy last week or going nuts at my interview, telling me how wonderful I am, what supplies do I need, here’s the art room (Skinner West) then never taking my calls, emails, in person visits, but also not hiring anyone else. Mark Ochoa tells me the CTU is trying to get some restitution for all of us, but when I ask if that is publicized, he says no, so why is he telling me that…Oh right, another promise just to get me to shut up, lie down, and die quietly. Unemployment told me I’m just on vacation and I have reasonable assurance I will return to work! I mean, really!

Deborah Anne Stewart on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 2:38 pm 



Principals tell me in interviews that they want to hire me, but tht after 17 years with CPS, they can only offer PAT positions because they say they do not have any money!
Some principals tell me that they have been told not to hire reassigned teachers; I have been reassigned five times. Yes, I have closed five schools. After paying union dues for 17 years, my union does not return my phone calls or emails. I hope that either the union members strike for the rights of all the teachers reassigned-to-death and unemployment or the union members replace the union leadership so the union will fight for tenured teachers to return to our positions with our tenure restored.

Deborah Hirshfield on Tue, 29th Sep 2009 10:50 pm 



Bravo for speaking up! That is exactly what I think: Principals are under the gun, but are also being told not to hire veteran teachers or else…And, the board blames teachers for its own failures, a primary one being the concerted effort to hound out all experienced teachers lumping all of us into the same age-discriminatory pool rather than acknowledging us based on our records and abilities. THAT is the epitome of ageism and there needs to be a class action suit.

Betsy Garcia on Fri, 23rd Oct 2009 8:10 pm 



I put my blood, sweat and tears into Wells High School and after twelve years I and a few of my colleagues received thank you letters from CPS. When I filed a grievance to fight for my job, the present Union disregarded it and totally ignored the fact that I was a upstanding member. Where did my union fees go? What was I paying dues for? We need a union that is going to stand up for not only the teachers but for career service staff as well! It’s time we take our rights back and build a stronger union!

John D Evans on Thu, 5th Nov 2009 8:56 pm 



This business of displacing, reassigning, and replacing dedicated and hardworking teachers must end. The profession of education is not a job, it is a career.

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