Executive Council

March 15 Update from GTA for Members

greeceteachers Executive Council, GTA
GTA Members: In an effort to be mindful of overloading you with information during this time, but also wanting to keep you updated and informed, we will be taking the approach of communicating with you via email on what we expect to be a daily or nearly daily basis.  As usual, those emails will be forwarded to you by your reps.  If you have any questions, please utilize those email updates first, as well as the GCSD webpage and other district communications, your building reps, and Executive Council members via email.  While our replies to any questions may be delayed, please know that we, along with NYSUT, are working consistently throughout these trying times on behalf of our members and our students.


Supt. Graupman has been in contact with us and will continue to communicate what she can, when she can.  No GTA Members are expected to report to work while school is closed.  Please see our emails from March 13th and 14th regarding the district’s Plan for Instructional Continuity during this indefinite closure.






Please stay safe while we all work together to navigate through these times and return to normalcy as soon as possible.

					

		
		
	




			
				


	

		

					
Sometimes the Headlines Make Me Sick, But I Go to School Anyway

								

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															Executive Council					
												

					


				

			
In response to the D&C’s recent article on teacher absences in Greece, Margaret Mourey, our Executive Vice-President, shared the following letter with the paper’s editorial page:


“The front page article in the January 13, 2013 Democratic and Chronicle about the

teacher absence rate in the Greece Central School District was misleading and troubling.

I am a Greece teacher. It is amazing how numbers can be played, with seemingly the only

goal in mind, to disparage teachers. I wish we only suffered from illness in the summer,

but it doesn’t work that way. I got the flu in December, along with half of the staff and

students at my school. I attended school anyway (much to the dismay of the teachers I

share a room with). Teachers are not immune to illness, death or the need to take care of

family members. Does every teacher in Greece miss 16 days of school a year? Absolutely

not! However, we do have teachers who are very ill themselves (cancer), or who have

children who are seriously ill, or are caretakers for elderly parents. Those individuals do

miss, sometimes, a lot of work. Under those conditions, who wouldn’t? So you create an

average that portrays all teachers as missing an unreasonable amount of days at work.

Ms. McDermott, maybe you could put your investigative skills to work and uncover

some of the great things Greece teachers do, every day, all year.”


Margaret Mourey

Executive Vice-President

Greece Teachers Association