Broadening Collective Bargaining Negotiations go far beyond wages and benefits. BY JENNIFER MACIEJEWSKI HAVING BEEN HIRED TO REPLACE A teacher who left after the first quarter, Susan Taylor began her career 30 years ago in less than ideal conditions. As a floating teacher in the Cincinnati Public Schools, she taught first period on an auditorium stage and then moved from one home economics classroom to another. And while her master’s degree in history prepared her to teach eighth-grade American history, she also taught seventh-grade Ohio studies and a ninth-grade careers course—a class that had no established curriculum, not even a textbook. Although her department chair and the district’s social studies supervisor shared ideas and materials in response to her pleas for help, the school principal gave her a poor performance evaluation that focused more on the minutiae of classroom management, such as Taylor’s failing to stop a child from tapping a pencil on the desk. “It was very frustrating to get that evaluation report,” recalls Taylor, now president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers (CFT). “I did struggle. I went to college to become a teacher, but I didn’t July 2007 35
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - July 2007