It had more to do with the letter of the law than anything else. It's really difficult to say much more about it. It was what we felt was a minor infraction - certainly not something that merited termination.
We are here to teach. It's what we like to do -- it keeps us crazy and sane at the same time.
There are better ways of doing things than to just implement it on us. It hurt a lot of teachers that we couldn't compromise. For every one bad teacher you get several good ones. We don't want the collective bargaining changed for one bad teacher.
We were really surprised. We were prepared to have the board terminate him, and we were quite relieved and surprised that they didn't.
With their current offer the board is given the option of protecting themselves by rehiring every three years to avoid firing. We also want to protect experienced teachers.
We are encouraged by the progress. It went miles further than it has in three years. We've been wanting to negotiate like this all along, with both sides resuming their responsibilities.
This could go on for months if the school board appeals. Morale has been damaged but it's not irreparable.