It's Night Side with Dan Ray w BZY, Boston's Me Radio.
All right, welcome back and talking to Nicole Davis. She's helping me with my Apple update. You know, it's great when you have people on your team like Nicole, because whenever I have a question about anything that's technical on computers, Nicole is always there for me. And she told me how to do that in about thirty seconds. Nicole, thank you immensely. Just thank you immensely, and I mean that honestly. Thank you so much. I've been a great friend and
a great colleague. Okay, it's the nine o'clock hour, and in the news you just heard that there will be no school tomorrow for the ninth day of this school year in Gloucester. There will be no school tomorrow in the Beverly School system for the ninth day, and no school tomorrow in Marblehead for the eighth day. So doing just a little bit of math on that, that basically is in about twenty six school days in those three systems,
you know, eight, nine to nine and eight. We have talked before about the problems with teacher strikes, and if you've read today's editorial in the Boston Globe. It's not often that the Globe and I editorially are in sync, but we certainly are today. And the Globe essentially is saying that teacher strikes in Massachusetts our first illegal. I mean,
what is it about illegal that someone doesn't understand? Now, we've kind of gone through this in recent times with the use of the word illegal in other ways, and people have told us that, well, just because something says it's illegal, it isn't necessarily illegal or whatever. You know
that that sort that sort of wordplay, euphemisms or whatever. Look, these three unions up north of Boston, Gloucester, Beverly, in marble Head, those teachers have been out of the classrooms for well it'll be two weeks in, not tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow. That's the substantial part of the school year. Now. I know that you've seen the the teachers displays of their protests, and they're they're not in
it for themselves. They're in it for the students, and they're in it for the for the parallel the para professionals. And I get all of that, but I had suggested last week and an idea, and the Globe, to their credit, the editorial page of Globe today was suggesting an idea as well, and the idea that the Globe has been suggesting that the fines that judges have been imposing have
been inadequate. Frankly, because if the purpose of the fine is to force the teachers' union to get back into the classroom, by definition not working, so they need to and I guess the opinion of the Globe and also the opinion of yours, truly they need to look at those fines and make them a tougher. If again, if the idea of a fine is to say, look, you're doing something illegally and we want you to stop. If you find them four dollars a day, whatever, it's inadequate,
it just is absolutely inadequate. And as a consequence, the strike has gone on now a long time. Looking at it from the student's perspective, these are school days that maybe they'll have to make up in April or February, I guess I think it's Beverly that's saying they can make this these days up in April or February. Well, nine days, that's two weeks. So if you're going to really make it up in April and February, there goes
the April vacation, there goes the February vacation. Gloucester, they're saying that they'll keep kids in school until June thirtieth. I think all of us know that once you get past June first, and summer has really arrived in New England, you're not going to get a lot of great school work done in the month of June. Here's my proposal, and it's a fairly simple proposal, and that is that. And I didn't probably explain it as well as I should have last week, so I want to hear from you. Okay.
Since strikes by public employees are illegal in Massachusetts, and that includes police officers and firefighters, one of the things that should be done, particularly for school features. Their school year generally is September to June, starts right after Labor Day, sometimes before Labor Day. And here's what I would argue needs to be done. Most school systems operate on three
year contracts, so let's take a three year contract. So let us assume at the end of this school year in June of twenty twenty five, the time own the city and the union has now about fourteen months left or fifteen months. Well, actually it'll be twelve months left because it probably would end on June thirty the following year.
So the parties, the union and the school department would be required to have some meetings and some discussions, some number of meetings and some discussions whatever one might think would be reasonable, ten twelve to fifteen meetings spaced over the summer of the year, of the summer before the contract expired. Now, if those meetings produced a result, that's great. You'll have a contract in place going forward months before
the current contract expires, so that's a good thing. But if during that summer before the agreement was not reached or it wasn't finalized, then you get to the next June thirtieth, which in our hypothetical would be June of twenty twenty six, the contract expires. We're not going to start a school year without a contract in place. How do we do that? We have a binding arbitration or some form of negotiations back and forth, which again take
place during the summer June or the July and August. Now, I'll tell you the teachers' union won't like it because they want their summers off, but it is an incentive
to get the contract done. And if by a certain date, let's say August fifteenth, just like they do in negotiations with professional athletes, highly paid professional athletes, the athletes representatives put in a proposal whatever they you know, want up three years, twenty million dollars a year, total sixty million dollars whatever, And the team has put in a proposal and said, nope, just we will be willing to pay them two years and we'll pay fifteen million dollars a year,
so that's thirty million dollars. Well, they make their case, however they want to make their case, and at some point I date, let's say August first, oh, say August fifteenth, the conversations, the negotiations end, and by September first, the arbiter or the mediator, however you want to characterize it, makes a decision and says we couldn't reach an agreement. Therefore, I'm going to impose a three year contract, which you know, the legislature would have to pass some sort of legislation
making this you know, permissible and mandatory. And if there is a strike, it would become then what would be characterized as a wildcat strike and at that point, the teachers would be put unnoticed and the union we put unnoticed. That any strike is going to result in people losing their jobs, because these strikes that are going on now will force other cuts in all of these communities. So
there will be collateral damage here. Maybe there'll be some of the younger teachers will who will lose their jobs, maybe people in public works, maybe people in public service. I don't know. But there's only so much money each one of these communities can spend on a teachers contract. So I would love to hear from parents who are inconvenienced immensely by these school strikes, immensely because they now have to come up with some way in which their
children will be looked after different ages. Obviously, if you have a kid in the first grade, well you're not going to say to the kid in the first gide, mommy and daddy have to go to work, enjoy yourself, don't watch too much televis. No, they're gonna they're gonna have to find a babysitter. They're gonna have to find a relative, they're gonna have to find a neighbor, which who I assume, They're gonna have to pay to to take care of little Johnny or a little Debbie big
inconvenience there the child's learning process. How you know there's an impact here. There's a real impact on all of the school kids in all of these students in these schools. Now, maybe if you're I don't know, a senior, well it could impact you. Maybe you're taking college boards for the last time. Maybe you need letters of recommendation written for your for your applications as to where where you want
to go to college. All of this, I think is put aside during the teacher strike and these obviously a coordinated strikes by three three communities in three communities all north of Boston, Beverly, Gloucester and Marblehead. So that's my proposal. Basically, say to the union and to the school departments, the school committee, you ran for this job, you applied for this job. You need to do the job for the benefit of the kids and the families in our community.
And here is the rules the legislature will put down and you're going to have to comply with them, simple as that. If you've read the Globe editorial and you agree with that, feel free if you agree with my idea feel free. Something has to be done. We have a Massachusetts teachers Union, and we have invited them to come on to the show and to defend themselves, okay, and they have always rejected our invitations. It's an open door invitation to the president Teachers Union, max On Paige,
and there's his assistant. I forget her first name, but Ms McCarthy. I only remember that name because I'm one of my grandmothers is well, my mom's mother is a McCarthy. So if you're McCarthy out there, maybe we're related. Let's get to this, okay. If you're a teacher and you think that I'm being horribly abusive to teachers, I'm not. I'm not at all. And I would suggest that all of you go to the Massachusetts Department of Education slash
teacher salaries. These teacher salaries, when I last check a week ago, are only updated to the year school year twenty twenty one, meaning twenty twenty through twenty twenty one, so they're four years old, and all of the teachers. The average salary for these three school systems again Beverly, Gloucester, Marvel Head the ones that are out on strike about eighty six eighty seven thousand dollars average average six one seven, two, five four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one
ten thirty. There's been a bunch of teacher strikes and it's only going to get worse until the legislature and the governor get some backbone and take them on and say this shall not stand. Back on Nightside right after this.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
The Globe editorial says tougher action is needed on teacher strikes. Illegal teacher strikes continue this week in three North Throe communities, Marblehead, Beverly and Gloucester, causing massive disruption for those communities. With little apparent progress toward a conclusion. The article concludes. It says, the way the process now works, finds typically aren't levied until a strike has been in effect for several days.
Finds generally started about fifty thousand dollars increased by ten thousand dollars or so each day that the strike continues. But it finds aren't immediately onerous, and payment can be delayed until the strike is over, whereupon the cash flush
parent union can quietly help make its locals. Whole pressure to end the illegal strike obviously won't be maximized, but it finds for striking starts, say one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a day, I went up by that amount or more each day the strike continued, Unions would be more cautious about breaking the law by going out on strike. As the MTA locals begin their second week of of disrupting their communities, it's pretty soon going to be the
third week with illegal strikes. It's time for a tougher approach. After all, if a state isn't serious about enforcing the law, in the Massachusetts Teachers Association and its locals simply won't get serious about abiding by it. Pretty good editorial in the Globe today. Let's go to the call is going to go first off too, John and Denham. John, you first tonight on night Side. Whether you agree to disagree, folks, you are welcome to join the conversation. Go ahead, John, hey Ed.
I was in high school during the Blizzard of seventy eight, and we had like three weeks off around a vacation week, and I believe we just added twelve minutes to each class, so we were basically making up a day every week and so cause to take away vacation from especially like you're a senior. You may be going on a senior class trip or something. It's just it's ridiculous. And and I think if you're both parties, I know this will
sound harsh. I think maybe for every day they strike, both parties have to start one week of jail time in the summer. You take away somebody's time. You watch how quickly this stuff gets resolved.
So when you say both both parties, you're saying both the school committee and the union the heads of the union exactly.
Yep.
Well, because that way, that way neither party can hold the other hostage. You know, if you say just the teachers are going to.
Have to go interesting suggestion. What do you think about my idea, which is basically, you got to start negotiating, in effect, the summer before the contract expires. We don't
expect you to come to an agreement. But once the contract expires in June, that next summer, the next two months July in August, you got to have You may blow your entire summer, but you got to sit and negotiate and at the end of it, if you don't come to an agreement, the arbiter or the mediator will issue a decision, just like they do in professional sports.
You know, when you know, when some you know, hotshot player says I've had great years and I want a ten year contract for fifty million a year, whatever it is, and the team says, no, we're going to give you three years at twenty million a year. Eventually, somewhere somewhere in the middle, a decision is made. I think that the well what do you think. I like my idea a little better because it's more specific.
I think you and I are on the same page. It meaning that, hey, if you're going to take away these kids, the time from these kids in their families because families have totally disrupted, then we're going to take away your time in the summer, which is I think, what kind of to your point? And I said, if hey, you got two months, you can't go vacation until you
get this resolved. But I mean the teachers that probably can still go on vacation cause they're not in the part of negotiate, right, you just have the union members and any any teacher who says this is for the kids. You know they're full of you know what.
Yeah, Well again, as they say, people should go look at the Department of Education statistics from four years ago. It's on it's a Massachusetts website, and it'll tell you exactly what the average teacher makes in your community, wherever you live in the three hundred and fifty one cities and towns of Massachusetts. Well, the idea, John, I think you're thinking outside the box, which is which is great. We got a couple of ideas. Maybe we could blend
them together. Okay, begs buddy, Hey you doctor you soon? All right? Good, nay, all right, let me see that. I got one line at six one seven, two five four ten thirty, and got one line and six one seven nine three one ten thirty. We can talk about this. I have no guest scheduled this hour. We may have either some union representatives who we have invited to call in, or some of the representatives of the various school committees they have also been invited to call in, but no
guests who will be here for a long time. So I'd like to get as many calls in as possible. And I got two lines up right now that are available six one seven two five, four, ten thirty and six one seven, nine, three, one, ten thirty and if we need to go into the next hour, we will. I think it's important. Now some of you are saying, Hey, Dan, what's what's the big deal here? We're talking about Gloucester, Beverly,
marble Ed. I don't even live near those places. Guess what if the mass Teachers Association can pull together a little North shore combined strike. You don't think that we could be seen a little south shore maybe a Metro West combined strike, Berkshire Teachers' Union combrian strike. Don't kid yourself back on nights side right after the news at the bottom of the hour.
If you're on the night side with Dan Ray on w b Z, Boston's news radio.
Let's get back to the phones and let's talk to Dot from Midford. Dot, welcome back.
How are you hi?
Dan?
Hey?
Dan?
You know they're not going to negotiate in the summertime because they've got the vacation planned. They're going to be in Europe on our dime.
Well, maybe the tender will be, but the union leaders will have to negotiate because if they don't negotiate, then the arbiter, the mediator can say, Okay, this is the proposal I have from this from the town of such and such and the city such and such. The union chows not to negotiate. I'm going to go ahead and support the towns and that would make that then would be the contract they'll have they have to live under.
Well, I think the first thing that should happen is right away, now that they're out for two weeks, they get a ten thousand dollars pay cut boutomatic automatic, every.
One of them.
And then the next step would be what President Reagan would do. They all lose their job, get all new teachers. They lose their job period.
Would it's tough to do that in the middle school year to be well, you know.
What, they're going to have to do something the teachers and the yeah, oh yeah, but I think a ten thousand dollars pay cast if that wound over the squashy little head that they'd give in, I think they'd have to.
Well, what happens here is that because these three schools go out on strike, that sends a message to the other communities. The community say, if all of a sudden, now our teachers union threatens a strike, we better well, pay attention. That's the nasty little secret here. And you have the Mass Teachers Association, which was very successful and
getting rid of the the m CAST graduation requirement. Yeah, and the next thing they're going to try to do is get rid of the m CAST testing in the eighth in the third grade.
The way powerful. They're too powerful and they get you. Gotta nip them in the butt with a pay cut.
Okay, all right, Dot, I got it in there. All right, let's see if people more people might agree with you. Okay, I was trying to do it in a nice way. You're like, bottom line, Dot, can't be.
Nice to have you taken a look at them on TV? We snap and gum bigger bath losses. Are you kidding?
Oh?
Come on now, none of that, None of that, None of that, all right, no rabbit punches. Okay, all right, thanks, thanks Dot, Let's keep rolling here. Steve is in Revere. Steve you are next night? Said welcome?
Hey, agreeing Dan there? How are you doing it for my call?
Dude? Great? Well, thank you for calling in. What's your taking all of this?
Well, I'll tell you I don't agree with them going on straight. I mean, it's not right, But.
It's more than not. It's Steve, if I could, it's more than it's illegal. It's not right for you. It's not right for you to park in that handicap parking space when you were running into dunkin Donuts. Not right to do that, but it's also illegal.
Go ahead, exactly, I totally agree, but I have to tell you I'm powerfully there. My sister is a para and re rere school system and again, they're actually under contract negotiation. Also. I don't know if you know that or not, but they've made their statements by doing other things on their off time. She tells me some stories about what she goes to with kids. I mean, I don't think she's nearly paid enough for what they do
with kids, biting and kicking them. But if father's teachers going on strike, you know that should be done on a time that doesn't take away from the learning of their children going to school. Absolutely not.
Yeah, did you say this was your wife was a paralegal?
Oh no, my sister was a paralegal.
Your sister Okay, okay, I'm sorry. We want to make sure so now paralegals mates make substantially less than teachers absolutely, which is something that the Teachers' Union over time has negotiated with various cities and towns. How long has has your sister been doing this type work.
It's en seven years, seven years.
So this is a career path for her. This is not she's trying for com.
Yeah, she has. She has graduated from Stuffolk University years ago. She's I mean she's almost fifty three years old.
Okay, did she take this up after did she do something else or was she.
I'll make a long story shot. She used to worked years ago for the FBI as a different things I can't get. I don't want to talk about secret, secret.
Stuff, secret stuff, No problem, go ahead, go ahead.
But she shows his career path when her daughter was born and my niece is now in college and she went back to work, and she said, it's just frustrating to see what they go through. His palties because I mean, they're nearly not pay enough and they have to they have to come on a lot of classes for when teachers are own. It's yeah, if.
They should be, they should be paid more. I think that, if anything, the teachers should negotiate it. Take take one break from from once, if the teachers said to a town. Look, we're okay, we'll work for the next three years without without a pay increase, but we want a substantial increase for the paralegals. I would be with the union one thousand percent at that point. Steve. Again, I'm not going after you know, anybody here personally, and certainly not going
after your sister. But I think something has to be done structurally here. And and maybe what we just talked about having the teachers back off in one cycle, well, you know, take it two or three percent raise and give the rest of it because you know and helped they. They always talk about the powers and how the parers are underpaid. Notice they don't say the teachers are underpaid. It's so they used the parers to negotiate raises for the teachers. That's not fair either.
I know it's not all right.
Stay appreciate you call so much, thank.
You, thank you. Not to jump off the second, but I can't wait. You have the Kay guys back on.
So we love the car guy Scott and Larry's. Matter of fact, I talked with Larry well buy or buy a text message a couple of days ago, and we'll have them on early in December. I guarantee you.
Oh, thank you so much and I appreciate you. Thank you so much.
Let me go to Pete in South Carolina. Pete, thanks for that suggestion. We did. I had a lot of fun with Charles Rowe. It was a wonderful, It was great.
But I am calling dot took some of my thunder and Ronald Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers because right now, I am sure there are plenty of men and women college educated don't have.
A job, would love to have.
A job, even if it's teaching. They're certified or they have a degree and you know some sort of institution of higher learning.
Yeah, well the only work. Yeah, no, I get it. But the problem is if you were if somehow someway they fired an entire union, it's going to end up in court. I think that would be penny wise and pound foolish in my opinion. That you know, maybe what they could say is, Okay, we'll give you the rays you want, but we're going to have to cut you know,
ten percent of the teaching staff. And it might be that that might wake them up or something to basically to say to a union group of you know, however, many teachers, it might be two hundred teachers in a community, you're all gone, and then to recruit and get twenty two hundred people to replace them in the middle of a school year. I think that's that's a big mountain to climb.
Well, it's either a big mountain to climb where you're gonna have to climb the same mountain because your kids are n't educated.
No, I understand the frustration. I really do.
Yeah, and I'm in South Carolina. This is you know, I usually don't call in when it's a local Massachusetts type thing, but I just had a thought that was it.
No, no, no, let me ask you. I'm assuming that you have, you know, teachers in schools down in South Carolina obviously, who are very qualified, very competent. The teacher strikes, our teachers are unionized in South Carolina. Might South Carolina might be a right to work state.
It is right to work. Stay okay, because my my three grandchildren once my grandson just graduated high school and my and the other two were in middle school and high school. So you know, we stay on top of it. My daughter obviously does because it's her kids. But like I said, you know, pulling this off in the middle of the school year.
It came, by the way, in three in three communities that are like peas in a pod. They're all you know Massachusetts, I know a little bit. Yeah, I've lost Beverly and Marblehead.
They're right up there in the north Shore right.
Uh. And to do this to the children, that's not fair. I'm sorry. Well, like the one lady said before me, take away some of their money. There's got to be something. I don't know, but I just frosted toasts a little bit when I heard the topic. I gotta call them.
You know, I'm glad you did, and I'm certainly glad to suggest you made. And for those of you who do not know, Pete is a big train I guess fan you know, Lionel and railroad railroading and he he suggested one of our guests last night at eight o'clock, Charles Row of the company named Charles Row. Uh, and we if you haven't heard it, you want to listen to the to last night's eight o'clock hour gives you
some great ideas. If you have a kid for presence this holiday season, you know, you a little a little bit of a throwback. But boy, I'll tell you. You look at their website and you see the trains that this this website has. I'm I'm thinking pretty seriously here, Pete have given Charles a call and getting something for my grandson, so I got to get it clean with the parents though. If you know what I'm saying.
Oh of course I understand. But anyway, you have a great Thanksgiving. I probably we'll get you sometime afterwards.
But absolutely right back to you.
Take care, my friend, Thank you much, thank you.
Okay, go take a quick break here, I got death, Mario, Paul and Andrew coming up. Only room for you at six point seven nine, one line open.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Good full lines. Let's keep rolling here. I'm going to try to give everybody a couple of minutes, and let's keep rolling. Andrew and Lemonster Andrew next on Nightside, go right, hit sir.
Hey, how you doing.
I'm doing great, Andrew, tell them tell.
Me what you did this? Well, what I think is I am actually a husband of a teacher who just retired, and I've seen the ups and downs in her career. I spent thousands of dollars on education on that she had to get PDP points over the thirty years that she was there. And what I say is, why aren't the school committees fine for not having their contracts ready for them or in agreement at the time that they were supposed to be rather well.
They probably they probably well they I don't know if they had contracts ready for them. Obviously if they presented them with a contract that the union liked, but then you know, the negotiations can be over in a day.
But that's really not the way it works. What they do is they start off, You've got the base of of of the contract that currently exists, and obviously any union is going to come in and say, would like to get a raised here, like to get this situation worked part of the part of the negotiations.
And I agree with you there, and I agree with you there, But but you have to look at the whole picture of the whole cyclativity of the economy where these teachers have taken zero percent for three years, and now that the economy has grown, they understand that, you know, there's a there's a lot to pay for and you know, with with the whole economy thing going up and down whatever.
So if they were more proactive in these school committees and and acknowledging that and giving them the right percentages or something close, you wouldn't have this situation. You would actually have people.
I got two questions for you, and I'm really interested. Let's assume and I don't know the specifics of these three contracts and Gloucester, Beverly Marblehead.
Do I, yes, I do.
You're you're telling me that that they've received no raises in the last three years. I don't know that.
No, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no, no, don't say that in the last three years. What I'm saying is over a thirty thirty year career. Okay. I've experienced this with my wife because she's she is a public school teacher in the system for thirty years.
Okay.
There are times when times were hard for the state in the in the cities and towns where they received no zero percentage raises. Okay, And again I'm not.
I'm not disputing that. And I don't want to talk about, you know, a situation that I don't know about, and you don't know about whether this was in twenty thirteen or twenty eighteen. I don't know. My point is this, you got three towns. Let's let's deal with what we can agree on. We got three counts towns, Gloucester, Beverly, marbles Head. There's no school now for eight or nine days? Okay?
Correct?
What would be a fair resolution in your mind these three schools? The average teacher?
No, no, no, no.
Question. Let me a favorite answer. I'm trying to pose a question to you. Okay, So if you would give me the privilege of posing the question inno entirety, I'll let you answer me in your entirety. Okay. So you have three towns. Do we know of the average salary up? There is around eighty six eighty seven thousand dollars in all three towns. That's according to the Department of Education. What do you think would be a fair percentage increase
in your opinion? You're the husband of a former teacher. What do you think would satisfy the union for the next three years? Give me the numbers that you think would be reasonable.
Well, the thing is is, I can't. I can't give you those numbers because I am not in their history of their contracts. The issue is is when you get into these history of contracts, right, they have maybe maybe they have taken zero maybe five ten years ago, okay, and now that now that the income ratio is much much higher, maybe the police in the fire department or the public works, the contracts are much much higher. The whole, the whole deal with this is, you know, you're talking
about three different towns here. Why isn't the school committee fined but not doing their contract on time?
These people because there's no obligation, there's there's nothing illegal about negotiations going beyond beyond a certain date. However, however, now, however, however you asked again, You've now asked me a question, and you don't want to hear my answer. The reason that the teachers union are being fined, Andrew, is that in Massachusetts strikes by public employees teachers included, that's illegal. That's what they're being fined for.
That.
There's no basis to find the school committee of these communities.
So why isn't there though, Why isn't there that's the legislature talking about three different communities up there, right, and you're saying, well, why why why are these kids not going to school, and I said, well, why let's be a little bit more proactive. Why aren't Why isn't the school committee obligated to make those contracts come in in fair on time.
Well, first of all, that's a subjective determination, Andrew, and that's you might think that fair and on time would be eight percent, eight percent and eight percent. And maybe they say, we don't have that money in this town, and we cannot go back to people in this town and raise their real estate taxes to fund that. I mean, that's what their problem is, Andrew. I appreciate your point of view on it. I just was hoping that you
could give me some idea. What you think they deserve they're making eighty five or eighty six thousand dollars?
No no, no, no, no.
No no no no, no, no.
No no. What you have to look at too, is oh, you've.
Already told me that, Andrew.
I've heard it.
I don't need to hear it twice. I got to look back at the entire history. So why don't we do this, Andrew? Why don't I change the subject and I'll spend tomorrow looking back at the entire history the Gloucester Beverly and Marvelhead School contracts over the last say, twenty five years, and then we'll open up the phone lines again tomorrow night. That's not the way my world works, andrews as much as.
Okay, no, no problem, dd, I appreciate that.
Right back at you, all right, much appreciate It'll we go next to Beth in bever in Berkeley. Beth in Berkeley. How are you, Beth?
I'm fine. How are you doing?
I think I'm doing Okay, go right ahead.
Yes, I'm a former teacher. I taught in the Farvar public schools for thirty five years. I retired in two thousand and eight.
And what you told me and I missed here. I did not hear. What public school system did you teach in?
Fall River?
Oh? Fall River? Sure? Okay, absolutely, okay, thank you for your service. Go ahead.
Yeah.
And I retired in two thousand and eight. And so I was listening to your discussion. I know Fall River isn't on the same level as the north Shore schools that you're talking about, But at the same time, you know, I feel like you know, like you know the voice of reason, But I don't understand how you can have such strong opinions about something that you've never done before, like taught in public school settings. It's not.
Easy.
It's a difficult job.
I happen to understand that very much. And I and I agree with you. I have never I have never played Major League Baseball, but I criticized the Red Sox every year when they lose. And I've never been a United States senator, but when I listen to someone of our senators say something that I agree or disagree with, that's my job is to kind of comment here. You know, but did you did your union ever go on strike? Or no?
Yeah, we did, we did. I started teaching in nineteen seventy three, and I believe we went on strike soon after that, and you know, we had to pay fines, the far of the Teachers Association had to pay fines, and we ended up going back to work, and we ended up teaching longer days and teaching into like the end of June to make up the days that you
were on strike. But you know, it's just like if you've never taught before, you know, the bell rings you teach, you're on, you know, like you're on, kids are looking at you, and you're teaching like straight for forty five minutes and then the bell rings. You can't go to the bathroom.
You have to.
It's it's not easy and in floridv we I mean, I retired in two thousand and eight, and I think I retired at fifty thousand dollars.
Which the average salary in Fall River in the school year twenty twenty to twenty twenty one. Want to take a guest as to what it was in that community a few years.
I have no idea.
Seventy four seventy four thy one hundred and seventeen.
Dollars that average average teacher salary. That's with the masters.
It's an average salary. So if you have one hundred teachers, you combine every everybody, you combine top of the scale, bottom of the scale, and average. Okay, yeah, so I appreciate. Unfortunately, I'm up. I'm up till ten o'clock. I'll hold you into the next hour. If you have more comments you'd like to make, would you like to hold through the news?
No, I'm all set.
You are, okay, Well, thank you very much for and thank you for listening, and thank you for calling. We'll take a break. I'm going to stick with this into the next hour. For a little while, we have some lines open at six, one, seven, nine, three, one, ten thirty. Feel free to fill them up.