Many of my colleagues think that teaching in the arts is one of the better jobs at a comprehensive high school – and maybe these jobs are. I know that I was raised to believe that teaching arts to kids is a privilege. However, let’s look at the real picture, factoring in how increasing class size is making it harder and harder to’ deliver the promise.’

In the 13 years I have been teaching at Montclair High, 17 art teachers have left – which constitutes a 3x turnover rate. A few were legitimate retirees (albeit early or unexpected due to health), but most were non-reelects or teachers transferring to other positions both inside and outside of the District. These figures should raise questions about the sustainability of these jobs.

And so – where do we go from here? We obviously need more funding from the state to keep salaries and class size at sustainable levels. That means we need more taxpayer, grassroots support. For the $2000 a year my husband and I contribute to CTA, I am expecting a better campaign from both CTA and State Superintendent O’Connell.

First off, CTA needs to revamp its advertising style in order to maximize our advertising budget. At least some of our advertising dollar should be paperless – highly effective, less expensive in the long run, and better for the environment. Mailings are still important, but could be scaled back considerably – not so often and so lavish. (tri-fold, super-glossy, etc.) Recently, CTA sent a fancy mailing which included an expensive, one-time use, display-in-the-car-window flier for Pink Friday, and I did not see anyone using it.

Secondly, I am convinced that we need to change the tone of our campaigns – we need to start running less reactive, more positive campaigns if we want to garner the support of the public. We should use our campaign dollars to talk about all of the great things we do in public schools, how our standards are some of the best in the nation, and that all that we do is ‘against the odds’ when our class size is the largest in the nation.

We need some cheerleaders – CTA and O’Connell should be leading the charge. Every message that they put out should have lots of positives – promoting the fact that we have some of the best teachers in the country, that our ‘think tanks’ who help develop curriculum standards are the best in the country, that our educational system is the cornerstone for a democratic and free society. With all the negatives about public schools that we are hearing from the press and the politicians we need to reassure the public in these hard economic times that spending money on education is the best way that taxpayers can invest their money. People are worried and scared, and they think our schools are failing – and who wants to fund a failing effort? We have to change it around, and convince people that we are succeeding in spite of the obstacles. America loves the underdog – give people and opportunity to root for us and all we do in the classroom.

Can you pass these comments on to CTA ? And explain how I can do so? I need help figuring out how to do that.

The union is called to lobby on so many different issues – at this point in time. I think we need to focus on just this one crucial issue because so much cause and effect is attached to it. The union needs to state and restate this in every way possible, and we need to follow up and substantiate for the public what so many of us think: CLASS SIZE MATTERS.

Firing teachers and squeezing more students into the rooms of the teachers that remain is not the solution.

I found a roll sheet from the late 80s underneath a drawer in my ancient desk here at school, and the math teacher was teaching about 145 students a day – 35 less than what this union is starting with as a figure to negotiate from. So a teacher in the late 80s taught essentially one less class of students in his/her 5 period day.