School Newspaper Article #1

Okay, so both Buddy and I are in the Newspaper club at our schools. We, at the high school, are apparently cursed at having the looonnngggeeessstt break between issues. To fix this, we are getting new ideas to write as soon as we fix our last story. Well I finished my first story; here it is.

Teacher Contract Negotiations

By Rayanna Chambers

Our teachers work under a contract between the school district and the teachers' union. The teachers' union is the Canandaigua Teachers Association (CTA). The teachers' contract determines many things, like how much a teacher gets paid for a salary, how long they have to work a day, salaries, absences and leaves, and how many classes they have to teach. Many adults from the district administrators, CTA (Canandaigua Teachers Association) negotiators, and sometimes members of the board of education get together with teachers to negotiate the next contract. However, the board of education doesn't get involved until the end when they have to approve everything. To gain some insight into this process, Mrs. Birx, the school's CTA leader helped with an interview.
"This has nothing to do with '10-year," Mrs. Birx said when she began. Negotiations for the year of the expiration date usually begin that Fall. The current contract ends on June 30th 2009. Most of the contracts last for three years, but they have been known to last for one. Since they have to start the process over again at the end of the contract, they negotiate it for as long as possible.
"The Teachers' number of hours of work a week is negotiable, but right now, they have to work 7 ½ hours a day for 186 days," she stated. The contracts remain the same across the board. All teachers get the same salary to start with if they have the same education. This brings up issues when teachers coach or advise clubs, because they get a stipend.
"[The average pay for brand-new teachers] who only have a Bachelor's degree is $37, 300 for a base for negotiation, but for teachers with a Master's degree, the starting price for negotiation is $39,350," she affirmed after looking at a chart.
Teachers have to stay until 2:55 everyday, but they do not have to stay until 3:30 with kids, and they won't get paid extra if they do.
She ended with: "due to our [U.S.A.'s] economic state, it will be difficult to negotiate anything easily."

Kinda boring, I know. Writting for your school newspaper isn't all sunshine, rainbows, and puppies!
~Rayanna~