Last Updated on March 8, 2018, 8:00 AM | Published: March 8, 2018
The principals union in Oklahoma City Public Schools has taken a public stand for a teacher “job action, in the form of canceling classes” to bring pressure on the Oklahoma Legislature.
Greg Frederick, principal at U.S. Grant High School is also the president of Local 79 of the American Federation of School Administrators – Oklahoma City Building Administrators, AFL-CIO.
Frederick sent a news release early Thursday saying their organization supports “our
Teacher colleagues in their effort to advance a budget, or promote legislation, that would increase funding for schools and increase salaries for certified school personnel.”
The union called for the Legislature to take action.
We encourage our state leadership, and specifically our elected lawmakers, to act swiftly and avoid a shutdown by fully funding educational services and enacting salary increases for our Teachers for the good of our state and ALL Oklahoma students.
The email said that in a survey of building principals, 76 percent of those responding supported “a job action in the form of canceling classes if necessary, in order to elicit a change from our state legislature….”
The statement is representing the executive committee of the union local after seeing the strong response from their member principals.
“The most valuable resource available to us are the teachers themselves,” the statement read.
The lack of being able to keep pace with regional teacher salary levels, teachers leaving the state to teach elsewhere, their inability to compete in recruitment and training of new teachers were listed among the reasons for the union’s position.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
