Thank you all for your support of Merrie in her struggle to retain her position. Your solidarity has been a source of strength and joy. By way of an update: Parents, teachers, students and community members organized a campaign of letters, rallies, and attendance at critical School Committee meetings to demand that Merrie be re-instated. They got weekly, positive press coverage all the way through the end of the school year. Her principal resigned three days after school ended. The Department of Labor Relations (DLR) found probable cause on four counts that the Concord Public School (CPS) School Committee retailed against her. So the DRL filed a formal Complaint agains the CPS School Committee. The DLR also classified Merrie's case as high priority and expedited the hearing, which is scheduled for October! As of the beginning of the school year, Merrie will be teaching kindergarten. While this means a move to a new grade level and a new school, it also represents a victory. Merrie will not only keep her job, but be able to continue her work for the children of Concord, as the president of her local and to fight Right Wing so called "Ed Reform".
Across Massachusetts and the country, teachers and their unions are facing broad based and very personal attacks. In order to silence our voices as a union, individual teachers face harassment and fear of job loss. Merrie's story tells us that any one of us is vulnerable. But it tells us a more important story and is that when teachers, parents, students, and community members join together and organize to claim our voices in our public schools, we can win. The win is not only the job, but the solidarity and strength we gain.
Again, thank you for your support. Keep attentive to the struggle to defend public education, teachers and their unions. We need each other.
solidarity
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