Do it for the children, ya right.

Both parties are to blame. The city has a poor track record of labor management. Concessions made by the mayor in his first terms to win favor with the unions only made them more aggressive in their demands. And the city's lack of skill in negotiating contracts leaves us property taxpayers at the mercy of state mediators who have a track record of screwing taxpayers. The teachers union leadership really should be running an UAW local. Their goal is to establish a least common denominator level of effort for maximum pay. Sound slike an auto worker to me. Both parties also like to claim the halo of "for the kids". That couldn't be further from the truth. It's about bad management and politics. Yes, the kids get cuaght in the middle, so do taxpayers.

Why would the teachers make a deal? They know an arbiter will make the pay retroactive to the day the contract expired so they will get a HUGE balloon payment and probably everything else they ask for. There should be a penalty for dragging out negotiations not a reward. As long as the city is making a good faith effort. A new contract shouldn't feel like a lottery win. Teaching pay is definitely recession-proof.

GREED - it is all about GREED. A couple of days ago the Boston Globe reported the loss of $9.4 million federal grant dollars which were available for Boston teacher bonuses: but the School Department and the Boston Teachers Union failed to reach an agreement. GREED . . . too many people beleive what they see and hear, and it appears too many unions beleive Mr.Gekko's mantra,"Greed is good".

Right on, Chrissie! I'd like to know who the mediator will be and how many relatives he has working for the Boston school system and elsewhere on the public sector.

I just replied to Chrissie78 and all I see is a light brown strip. The globe techies really have this comments section humming, don't they? I called a couple of weeks ago and they were barely aware that there were any problems. Since then, nothing has been changed, fixed or improved.

jshore replying to incredible1, Cantabrigian01, Chrissie78, NativeBos, and migh, BPS Teachers have been without a contract for 22 months, the current BPS Administration has set up an adversarial system of manipulation, usury and frankly, disrespect that demonizes teachers, and make a hard job even more difficult for many teachers. BPS Administration knew this deadline was coming, and should have negotiated in "good faith" with the BTU, instead of trying to garner public support at the last minute for a bad proposal. I am a "good" teacher and I support Richard Stutman 100%, more importantly, I trust him to negotiate a contract that is both good for students and fair to teachers. As a homeowner and "taxpayer" in Boston, I would suggest that the city concentrate on getting the 40 large "not-for-profits" hospitals, universities, and cultural institutions (who own over half the total for all commercial property in Boston) to pay the 25% of what they would pay for municipal services if they were not tax exempt. Mayor Menino is even giving them FIVE years to do it, as a homeowner and taxpayer in Boston, I wouldn't! I say make them contribute NOW!! He is even willing to give them "community service credit" up to 50%, bringing their contribution down to 12.5%! Again, I wouldn't! If these groups were not tax-exempt, they would be paying $404-million and if they were paying even a percentage of their fair share, we would not be having this discussion and the city would be sending the "taxpayer" a rebate check! Below is the link to the Mayor Menino's Task Force Report. It is time for these non-profits (not to be confused with "charities") to step-up. If they can afford those taste lunches at the seaport hotels, they can afford to pay the City of Boston their fair share for municipal services. Members of the Mayors Task Force suggested it to be "voluntary." Not surprising when you consider they hailed from the non-profit organizations that were going to be asked to pay up! Members of the Mayor's PILOT Task Force included: Stephen Kidder, Attorney, Hemenway & Barnes LLP Dr. Robert Brown, President, Boston University Dr. Zorica Pantic, President, Wentworth Institute of Technology Patricia McGovern, General Counsel & Senior VP for Corporate and Community Affairs, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Dr. Thomas Glynn, Chief Operating Officer, Partners HealthCare, Inc. Gail Latimore, Director, Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation James D. Gallagher, Executive VP of Communications, John Hancock http://www.cityofboston.gov/assessing/pilot.asp http://www.cityofboston.gov/Images_Documents/PILOT_%20Task%20Force%20Final%20Report_WEB%20_tcm3-21904.pdf

Thanks for the extra effort, next time you call, please ask them to think about using a different interface. One with a paragraphing and editing features. This one is cumbersome, and makes for difficult reading.

I can see you don't have all the information, let me see if I can change your mind, it really is not about greed. As a teacher in a BPS turnaround school, I say NO to "Incentive Money" in education. It amounted to $700 dollars last year, which didn't even come close to covering the supplies I purchased for my classroom. It is insulting, and "in your face" disrespectful, to every teacher who doesn't get it; it sets up adversarial collaborative communities within a school. Previously, in the Boston Public Schools we had a system where all BPS schools, that made improvements, were awarded a flat sum of money. All teachers at the school came together and decided what to spend it on. One year my school spent our award on desperately need overhead projectors and another year on computers for the library, another year on sports uniforms and choir robes. It was a worthy endeavor and everyone in the school community was united in meeting the schools goals. "The Children" were the ultimate beneficiaries. On the teacher level, our principal would quietly give a teacher a class set of markers or a "Cram Globe" for doing extra things and going the extra mile, it was a token of appreciation and acknowledgement. I am sure that our parents, and most teachers, would prefer this model of incentive.

I could not be more disappointed in Dr. Johnson, again, she has forgotten that teachers in the end are members of her team. This is a "mutual contract" between the BPS and BTU, Dr. Johnson doesn't show up at contract negotiations for 22 months, only to show up the last 2 days and wants to change the 30 minutes to 45 minutes, for k-8 teachers only. Then she insults everyone by offering teachers $13.89 for 45 minutes of work! If you are in the 25% bracket, after taxes, that is $10.41! That wouldn't cover the time to do the Xeroxing and correcting of the class you taught! I have students who make more than that babysitting, as one student said to me when I asked how much they were paid, "It depends on how many kids." I said, "30 and they want to pay me $13.89 for 45 minutes" Everybody laughed, when one of them said, "That's 46 cents a kid!" Classes might end at 4:05 but kids would have to pack up and get on the bus (that's if the busses show up on time). Then Teachers leave 10-15 minutes after the kids. There are things you have to do at school to prepare for the next day – Xeroxing the workbook that the school system can't "afford" to provide, and most likely, there will be a line if there is only one Xerox machine. I 'm sure everyone understands what I mean. That brings teachers right into rush hour. Safety doesn't work alone, to my knowledge there has never been any school bus fatalities in Boston Public Schools. My concern is about the kids on the buses. Some of them will travel 1 to 2 hours a day. With the new focus on getting students to their destination in a timely manner, I fear that bus drivers, stressed by rush hour traffic, and concerned with getting back to the lot on time, might not exercise the appropriate driving cautions. Richard Stutman is correct; honestly, I want to remind everybody that Dr. Johnson pays her administrative staff their hourly rate for overtime, and it is retirement worthy. I am not a conscript, if Dr. Johnson wants my time, I want my hourly rate, and I want it to be retirement worthy. It's not about the "time" anymore, it's about the respect.