{"id":1909,"date":"2011-02-23T15:43:03","date_gmt":"2011-02-23T20:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1909"},"modified":"2011-02-23T15:43:03","modified_gmt":"2011-02-23T20:43:03","slug":"surrendering-reason-for-the-sake-of-a-headline-and-greed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1909","title":{"rendered":"Surrendering reason for the sake of a headline and greed"},"content":{"rendered":"

When thinking about the Unionville teachers’ contract talks, it’s important to remember that we’re all in this together<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

UnionvilleTimes.com editorial cartoon graphic. Copyright, 2011. All rights reserved.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\nThere\u2019s right, and there\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n

If you ask 100 people about the current Unionville-Chadds Ford teacher contract negotiations, you\u2019ll get 100 different answers and, understandably, a number of them angry. Parents are frustrated. Kids are worried. But don\u2019t think for a second that either the school board members, the administration or the teachers don\u2019t hear it \u2014 and privately aren\u2019t just as frustrated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And I guess, it might be tempting to try to vilify one side or the other \u2014 such histrionics would mean a spike in readership, which means more money in advertising revenue. It can be very profitable to sow the seeds of discontent. There\u2019s too many examples in the media right now showing us exactly that. It\u2019s certainly a little cynical and dare I say it, just a bit greedy.<\/p>\n

Except, of course, that there\u2019s a cost to such conduct. Everyone involved is not just some headline, but a person \u2014 a neighbor or a friend. And let\u2019s be clear: while you or I may not agree with one side or the other, none \u2014 none \u2014 of the people involved are bad, or evil or rotten, as some might want to portray them.<\/p>\n

In fact, it is my experience that pretty much everyone involved is a pretty good person. Yeah, I can\u2019t lie. There are folks on both sides of the contract negotiation that say things that make me wince and both sides have been guilty of more invective than might be helpful, at times.<\/p>\n

Still, these are good people. On the teachers\u2019 side you have people like Pat Clark, Perk Musacchio and Betsy Ballard. When he\u2019s not a union president, Clark is a heck of a football coach and the kind of guy it would be a blast to share a beer with and talk offensive schemes rather than pay scales. Musacchio and Ballard are among the most-dedicated and beloved teachers in the district, often honored for going above and beyond the call of duty to help students and create a better learning experience.<\/p>\n

On the board side, you have guys like Keith Knauss and Jeff Hellrung. Keith has a gifted mind for numbers and a sharp intellect \u2014 and a dry sense of humor. And while you might argue with his steely focus on the bottom line, I think it\u2019s driven by a worry that a failure to be exceedingly careful in the next few years by the school district could really hurt the quality of education in the long term. Jeff is another very bright guy and not too shabby as a poker player. He has the rare combination of skills and guile that allowed him to fly planes off the deck of an aircraft carrier and teach high school math, neither of which is something for the squeamish. Frank Murphy is both an engineer and an attorney, passionate, informed and able to ask good questions.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s also important to remember that neither side caused the fiscal nightmare we face today. Even just five years ago, the idea that property values would go down in Chester County was laughable. But it happened. And our friends in Harrisburg have dumped the pension mess on school districts, while merrily tossing in more mandates and no additional funding to pay for them.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, there isn\u2019t going to be some magic fix. There\u2019s no good solution to the problem \u2014 the teachers certainly deserve to be well-paid, by all metrics they\u2019ve performed well above average. At the same time, senior citizens and those on fixed incomes shouldn\u2019t be forced to choose between paying for medicine and paying their property taxes.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the answer here? Everyone, teachers, board members, taxpayers, parents are all going to have to find a way to live with a less than perfect deal.<\/p>\n

No one is going to be happy with the final result of these negotiations, but vilifying one side or the other doesn\u2019t help the process or make for a better community once the deal is done.<\/p>\n

Doing so to stuff one\u2019s pockets, though, goes beyond cynical to reprehensible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When thinking about the Unionville teachers’ contract talks, it’s important to remember that we’re all in this together By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com There\u2019s right, and there\u2019s wrong. If you ask 100 people about the current Unionville-Chadds Ford teacher contract negotiations, you\u2019ll get 100 different answers and, understandably, a number of them angry. Parents are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,120,7],"tags":[45,44,42,24],"class_list":["post-1909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-columns","category-featured","tag-negotiations","tag-school-board","tag-teachers-contract","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}