Kentucky One-Day Wildcat Sickout - Some want to continue

Teacher actions are heating up - Kentucky wildcatting sickouts. Here are two reports from not exactly union friendly sources.


Mike Antonucci:

Kentucky Wildcat Group Has Its Own Wildcat Group

Teachers in a handful of Kentucky school districts held a sickout yesterday to protest a proposed bill that would change the composition of the state teacher pension board.
The sickout was not sanctioned by the Kentucky Education Association, the union for most state teachers, making it a “wildcat” job action.

Several large school districts shut down after the sickout was called by KY 120 United, identified as a grassroots organization of teachers, but one that apparently has some pull with district superintendents.
If that isn’t confusing enough, both the union and KY 120 United announced that teachers would return to work today, but a smaller wildcat faction rejected the idea. The Courier Journal reports:

The teachers from Jefferson County Public Schools had assembled by late Thursday night in a Facebook group called “JCPS wildcat,” pushing for continued action against legislation that would affect teachers’ pensions, according to social media posts.

“Put in a sick day,” read one post. “Stick to your guns. When we say we are going to do something, we MUST follow through!!”

JCPS spokeswoman Renee Murphy said Thursday night that the district is aware of the group and is monitoring the situation. As of 10 p.m., the district reported that absences were “pretty average,” she said.

…The group’s Facebook description seemingly takes aim at the KY 120 United, a grassroots group behind Thursday’s sickout, rather than an organized teachers union.

“Group for JCPS to make its decisions without interference from KY 120 zone 3 leadership,” the description said, referencing a Louisville branch of KY 120 United.

I’m sure this is frustrating for the school district, but it is a hazard for the union as well. Either the union is the exclusive representative of teachers or it isn’t. If schools are closed as a result of decisions by KY 120 United or any other group, who is really in charge?

An article from the Courier-Journal

Kentucky schools chief slams teacher sickout for being 'unfair' to kids

After Kentucky's two largest school districts announced they would be forced to shut down due to massive teacher absences, the state schools chief slammed the "sickout" as being unfair to students and families.

"It is unfair to Kentucky's students and families, unreasonable, and irresponsible to attempt to shut down our state's public school system because a House committee will consider a bill," Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis said in a statement late Wednesday evening.

"Educators can and should make their views known in Frankfort, but there is no reason for our kids not to be in school tomorrow."

The list: These Kentucky school districts are closed due to teacher 'sickout'

More: Teachers group calls for statewide 'sickout' as JCPS, other districts close

Lewis' admonishment came after Jefferson County Public Schools and Fayette County Public Schools said they were forced to close on Thursday because they did not have enough substitutes to cover the number of teacher absences reported. 

JCPS said roughly 35 percent of its teaching staff said it would not be showing up to work on Thursday. In Fayette County, a smaller district, 40 percent of teachers called out.

Teachers from around Kentucky called in sick Thursday to head to Frankfort to protest a pension board bill. They chanted together in the Capitol. Alton Strupp, Louisville Courier Journal

The closures come just hours after a grassroots group urged teachers to call out sick so that they could travel to Frankfort in protest of a bill that would restructure the board that oversees the state's teacher pension system.

Jessica Dueñas, Kentucky's 2019 teacher of the year, fired back at Lewis late Wednesday.

Dueñas, a JCPS teacher, is running for president of the Kentucky Education Association, the statewide teachers union.

In a video posted to her Facebook page, Dueñas said teachers have made "a million attempts" to have their voices heard, from phone calls, to emails, to traveling to Frankfort.

More: JCPS closed due to Kentucky teacher strike over pension board bill

Dueñas, a special educator at W.E.B. DuBois Academy, said she would rather be teaching her students on Thursday but that she felt obligated to advocate for the future of Kentucky's schools.

"Eventually, I'm gone," she said. "But somebody has to replace me. And what if there's no one to replace me because what we have set up is a failure...Then what do we do?"

The decision to head back to the Capitol on Thursday wasn't personal, she said.

"You literally handed me my teacher of the year award, Commissioner Lewis," she said. "So I hope you heard this from me as an advocate for our state's teachers and students."