yikes part 2

I read one of my e-mails this morning, at work, and had a bit of a shock. One of the things my district is now talking about to help balance our budget is to basically force everyone to take a week off without pay. I have so many reactions to that, I have a hard time putting them together in my own head.

First, week without pay better than loosing job. Even better, there was no description of how that "no pay week" would be not compensated for. Now, I know in most jobs, you fill out time sheets and you mark down the hours you worked and you get paid for your hours. Teachers are basically salaried employees. You are contracted for a certain number of days, with a certain amount of pay. While the work days - for my district at least - run from August through May, our paydays run year round. That is to say, my sum of pay is divided into 24 increments, and I get paid twice per month (more or less). So, I don't really get paid next week for the hours I worked this week. I get paid for most of them, with a few being paid for in the summer, when I'm not working.

So, with this proposed "vacation," they could handle the lack of pay several ways... give us a paycheck for one week worked instead of two. Pay your bills on that, I dare ya. They could spread that lack of pay through several, or even the checks through the rest of the contract year. A little less noticeable, but still that doesn't feel good, does it. Or they could do some kind of something in between.

None of it really makes me happy. Oh, sure, I'm just as happy as the next person not to work, but believe me, I want that paycheck. I have bills to pay and all... That was what I signed that contract for, so many days, so much money.

Now on to the other implications... At the end of last school year, when gas prices were way up there, and I was wondering what kinds of things were going to happen because of it, I thought about this. What if the school district(s) was forced to close because they ran out of money? What kind of ripples would that have? If our schools are closed for an extra week, there are a lot of district employees who make a lot less than I do, who would be hurting for money. There would also be bus drivers feeling the pinch. What are all those kids going to be doing at home while mom and dad have to work? Daycare for a week? Will we meet the state requirements for hours for our classes? I know there is some time built in, for that miracle of a snow day, but a week??? Will they take away the teacher prep days at the beginning of the semester? Questions, questions, questions... and where are the answers? I hope some of them are on a new e-mail that I'll get to read tomorrow morning... I hope I like what I read, or at least don't hate it too much. I hope this whole thing isn't a sign of the apocalypse...