After a week of being in the center of the MSTA lawsuit against the state of Missouri regarding Senate Bill 54, I was really excited that MSTA won the injunction.
MSTA Wins Injunction against Social Networking Bill
One of the other “hats” I wear is co-president of my local Community Teachers Association for the MSTA. I’m spending my Sunday afternoon, writing a rebuttal to my MNEA counterparts in my school district in an open letter to Northwest R-I teachers and staff. For 13 years, MSTA and MNEA have shared bargaining over teacher salaries, benefits, and working conditions with the district administration and BOE representatives. In the past years, the district teachers have voted to have both associations represent them equally with a team of 10 teachers – five from each organization. Last spring’s negotiation agreements resulted in changes to the voting procedure. We now have three days to vote on this representation issue. Amazing that the United States citizens can elect a U.S. president in one day but it will take just over 400 teachers 3 days to vote! I know many of my fellow educators from other states are NEA members but Missouri teachers have a choice. MSTA is the largest teacher organization in Missouri with over 44,000 members. We have been around for over 150 years – in fact, we were one of the founders of NEA – until they kicked us out in 1972. An interesting story for another day.
Tomorrow is the start of the three day voting window. What follows is my personal views and responses to issues that have been sent out to my district’s teachers this past week.