I will comment on this following email that I found in my inbox this morning shortly but I have a breakfast meeting in nine minutes….
…..It was a good meeting. I learned all about the Duluth Civil Service Board and why the Duluth School Board has to pay attention to it. (It turns out we had a discussion of the Civil Service Board a couple years ago that I had forgotten about. Re-reading this post reminds me just how ridiculous my first two years back on the Board were.) Now on to the subject at hand:
Today the Trib has a short, belated story about the failed attempt to better compensate our hourly, non certified, non union, hourly substitutes. The Administration got its points across in it but we proponents could feel a little slighted because our point of view got short shrift. That may be remedied by Loren Martell if he decides to write about the discussion in the Reader and that’s possible. He gave me a call shortly after the meeting with a couple questions about our proposal. I already linked to the youtube in my first post on the subject so you readers could catch our arguments as we extemporized.
Not having researched hourly sub pay I was in no position to argue facts on the ground but a follower with some experience in the subject sent me an email on the subject. Here is what my follower reported:
Hi Harry and Alanna,
I wanted to share some info with you about the wages being offered for playground and lunch supervisors at the Superior, WI school district since others on the board think minimum wage is enough to pay to fill these very important positions.
They currently are advertising to fill such a position at Lake Superior Elementary and it pays $11.93 an hour.
Also, last year I saw a playground lunch supervisor position advertised at North Star last year and I am pretty sure it paid $10.40 an hour, but cannot be 100% certain.
I did the job for awhile last year at ******* and I can tell you these people are handed a lot of responsibility, get very little or no training, get very little or no supervision or support, and sometimes have to work over their allotted time to fill out behavior reports or similar- time that they do not get paid for.
These people are on the frontline of keeping kids physically safe and also psychologically safe and are in a position to stop bullying and harrassment, yet are treated like very second-class citizens and not give the tools or training they need and are definitely not financially compensated for the amount of responsibility given.
Wal-Mart has a prominent poster in their foyer stating all positions start at $11 an hour, with some positions earning more.
Don’t know if that is helpful to your argument or not….
I wrote back and explained that this information was enlightening even if it hadn’t been fully verified.
I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I was studying up on the City’s Civil Service Commission and its possible authority over the Duluth School District. One thing is very clear to me. Unions stick up for union workers. Not in a union. Good luck. I’m not saying this is wrong. I’m just saying that it is what it is.
