Oct 15, 2008 7:01 pm US/Eastern
Teachers Want School Board To "Come Clean"
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Miami-Dade School teachers are using these soaps in protest over what they say is lack of transparency from the school board. They want them to "come clean".
CBS
The fight between Miami-Dade teachers and the school district has now gotten a lot dirtier, or cleaner, depending on how you look at it.
The teachers' union has created hundreds of specialized bars of soap, that have a label on them, demanding that deputy superintendent Ofelia San Pedro "Come Clean". Teachers are presenting their bars of soap to senior administrators Wednesday at the School Board meeting as they call for greater transparency in the school budgeting process.
These teachers have used their voices, signs and now their soap to express their frustrations over being denied their promised pay raises.
Dade teachers' union President Karen Aronowitz says these soap bars make a point: They accuse San Pedro of not releasing all the budget information the union requested.
"We're asking the district to come clean with its numbers because things have changed and we have not received good information," said Aronowitz.
Last summer, San Pedro was charged with balancing the school district's $5.5 billion budget. Teachers say they were kept in the dark during the budgeting process, but school district officials counter that they maintain an open budget process. This year has been an especially challenging one; district officials had to slash more than $280 million from the budget. Among the more controversial cuts was $72 million in promised raises to teachers and other employees.
Last May, San Pedro said despite the difficult cuts the district had been able to save some things – like providing students with transportation.
"We are not required to provide any transportation for magnet (schools), but the district has done it more many years. We are one of the few districts in the state of Florida that continues to provide magnet transportation," said San Pedro.
The School Board is not expected to discuss the raises or the budget at Thursday's meeting.
But Aronowitz says the union needs accurate budget numbers to prepare for their impasse that starts November 3rd. That is essentially a hearing in front of a judge, where both the district and the union will present their cases over the teachers' pay raises. The judge's opinion then goes back to the school board.
"I feel this is just a gimmick," said Aronowitz.
San Pedro feels plastering her face on a bar of soap to make a statement is pretty low.
"This is not about me, it's not about one person, it's about what this District represents," said San Pedro. "This District has been completely open with everything we've dealt with the Union on."
The teachers
CBS4 News spoke with say as trite as it may seem, campaigns like this help keep pressure on the district to pay up. So you might be wondering where all the soap will end up? The union president wants to put them in area schools, because as we all know, schools need all the supplies they can get.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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