For Respect! For Dignity!

Imagine this: You wake with a raging fever and can’t bear the thought of dragging your sick body into the classroom, cafeteria, or school bus, but your supervisor requires you to get a doctor’s note before you can take a day off.    

This is the kind of unprofessional treatment that education support professionals (ESPs) in Clover Park, Washington, faced this year. No respect. No fairness. And no money! In recent negotiations, the superintendent’s team offered no salary raise beyond the mandatory cost-of-living increase and, in addition to the doctor’s note provision, said there would be no more extra bus runs for drivers, and health benefits would be cut, too. (Meanwhile, the superintendent jaunted around the country on tax money—to the tune of $55,000 last year—and the district boasts of a $13 million reserve fund.)

With that kind of management attitude, it’s no surprise Clover Park ESPs fought back. At an October school board rally, more than 200 showed up—fully half of the total membership. They ran out of pizza, picket signs, and pins, but definitely not passion.

“This is about respect and dignity,” Irene Oda, president of the ESP of Clover Park, told school board members.

Not long after the meeting, Oda and friends won—a raise of nearly 4 percent this year, plus more money for health benefits. And the idea of doctor notes? Management was cured of that.