Teachers Passing on Recommendation Requests
Fair Lawn High School parents are concerned that teachers are taking out their contract dispute on students
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Many Fair Lawn High School seniors had their worst fears confirmed Tuesday when they asked teachers for college letters of recommendation and were rebuffed.
“There is a very consistent response from the teachers,” parent Patti Lakin said. “They’re reading a prepared statement to the kids. It’s obvious they’re being told to say it.”
Although Fair Lawn Education Association president Gene Kuffel said last month that he was not responsible for issuing such a directive, parents assume that the resistance to write letters for students is a negotiating tactic brought down from the union leadership.
Teachers have been working with an expired contract since last June and would like to speed up new contract negotiations. Under their current contract, they are not required to write recommendation letters for students.
Lakin and a half dozen other incensed parents of FLHS seniors attended Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting to air their displeasure with the situation. The group of parents, who asked to remain anonymous, said they had heard from their own children and classmates of their children about the concerted teacher response.
One parent read a message from a student:
“I asked two teachers today and both said they remembered that I spoke to them,” the message begins. “One physically wrote my name on a list and the other said that hopefully once this whole thing was over, he’d be more than happy to write me [a recommendation].”
The parents are concerned that without letters of recommendations, colleges will pass on their children. Some schools require early action admission packets to be turned in as soon as Sept. 30. Without a recommendation, parents said that colleges consider the admission packet incomplete.
While the parents said they previously had sympathized with the teachers over their contract situation, a few made known that their support was drying up now that their actions were directly hurting kids.
“As a senior parent we’re here to get our kids into college now,” one father said. “If they’re jeopardizing that, I don’t think anything else matters.”
“They’re using this as a tactic to get everybody’s attention,” a mother added. “And, you know what, you’ve got our attention. But because you’re using our kids as pawns, you don’t have our support. What a simple way to lose support. Completely. 100 percent.”
Parents said some of the same students now being denied recommendations actually marched outside last year in solidarity with the teachers, and now feel shocked and let down.
“It’s a slap in the face,” one father said.
Even if the teachers change their tune eventually, parents worry that it won’t be soon enough.
Lakin said she feared that if teachers were forced to churn out numerous recommendation letters just prior to application deadlines, that they would end up more like generic form letters than the personalized, poised letters students expect from their teachers.
Another parent said he felt he was being cheated financially, because even if ultimately accepted, his child might not receive precious scholarship money that schools sometimes dole out on a first-come first-serve basis.
The parents said they would be bringing the issue before teachers at Thursday’s Back to School Night event.
K.
10:46 pm on Thursday, September 8, 2011
Wow. That is ashame. I'm pretty sure most people go into the teaching profession to help children and this debacle most certainly is not. I don't know anyone who has gotten a raise in the past couple years. I do know that most people are paying more and more into their insurance plans each year. I also know that if employees told their bosses they couldn't do a task that they normally do, they would no longer have their job. It's time to be happy that you have a paying job, have health insurance, get a nice amount of days off and that it would be extremely hard to be fired.
Kristal Renn
11:18 pm on Thursday, September 8, 2011
So sad when doing the right thing isn't the priority. Even sadder when it's the students who suffer.
peggy
6:28 am on Friday, September 9, 2011
DIsgrace-someone should let the Record know!
KS
6:54 am on Friday, September 9, 2011
Why is anyone surprised to learn that unions and union members take care of themselves first without any concern about the impact of their actions on others. As long as they are paid a salary they need to do their job to earn that salary period. Using students as pawns is dispicable and low. The repeated demands for raises and higher benefits while the country is sinking into a recession and budgets are being cut only hurts the students. We are forced to cut services and programs or raise taxes to accommodate those demands.
Harold Vogel
7:46 am on Friday, September 9, 2011
Ditto to all above..
Sheryl Cashin
7:57 am on Friday, September 9, 2011
Disgusting! What happened to it being all about the kids? The teachers care about one thing only....MONEY! Most americans have not had a raise due to the economy and many are out of work all together. What makes teachers better than the folks who are paying for all of this?
a concerned parent
8:29 am on Friday, September 9, 2011
Greedy teachers, get rid of them all.
Donna Taylor
9:47 am on Friday, September 9, 2011
I feel great concern for the students and parents at Fair Lawn HIgh School that are in this terrible position. I no longer have faith that a good majority of the teachers in Fair Lawn are here to teach, rather they are more concerned about what is due to them. Anytime I see a teacher interviewed and they say "I'm here for the kids" its laughable - you are here for your benefits and your pension. You teach my children with one hand at the white board and the other hand in my pocket.
S. Bernstein
11:22 am on Friday, September 9, 2011
Please, Good Citizens of Fair Lawn, do not direct your wrath towards the teachers. There are two sides to a contract. If you are concerned about your child's future, turn to the Board of Education and urge them to negotiate in good faith, settle the contract fairly and let the teachers return to what they do best. No one goes into teaching for the money; teachers will never earn what one can earn in the private sector. Why is it that we shrug and look away when a CEO earns millions and runs a company into the ground, but when a teacher with 20 years experience inches towards $100,000 there is outrage? Teachers are truly the "job creators" in this country; give them the support and respect they deserve.
K.
11:33 am on Friday, September 9, 2011
Bernstein, many teachers, at least in my children's school are making over $100,000. That is to teach lower grades in a nice town with parents that are involved and a PTA that gives them anything they want. The contract should be no raises for a year, pay extra into health insurance and how about no 10% increase for a teacher that got 15 more college credits! You read that right, go into the BOE meeting minutes and see for yourself.
K.
11:39 am on Friday, September 9, 2011
And please don't think I hate teachers, my father was one, my sister is and my sister in law is. They all think the FL teachers are crazy and spoiled!
BOB
11:50 am on Friday, September 9, 2011
Unions are in the process of destroying the school systems in this country as they have so many other industrys. Obviously they have been imbolden by the current political leadership, this comes as no supprise, yet it is sad commentary.
KS
2:01 pm on Friday, September 9, 2011
Actually the sad commentary is to see the behavior of the Longshoremen's union in Washington state. They have destroyed property, kidnapped security guards and attacked anyone who disagrees with them in their dispute with their employer. Yet our current government in DC hasn't made a peep about it. What happenned to all the talk about civility from Obama. I guess it only goes one way. While this makes the Fairlawn teachers behavior look innocent by comparison, it shows how low many unions will go to achieve their goals. The fact of the matter is that none of them will admit publically or put in writing that this is an organized effort.
Stuart Pace
2:32 pm on Friday, September 9, 2011
I don't know that this story has any truth to it, so I would reserve comment.
Harold Vogel
6:25 pm on Friday, September 9, 2011
Forward story to Gov. Christie.
K.
11:56 pm on Friday, September 9, 2011
I found out this happened in another state and their BOE said that writing letters of recommendation are a required professional responsibility. I hope that is the case with Fair Lawn.
julie
1:22 pm on Sunday, September 11, 2011
Any teacher refusing to write a recommendation should be fired!
Lisa Yourman
7:07 pm on Sunday, September 11, 2011
Disclaimer: I was a member of the Board of Education from May 2008 through April 2011, I was one of the BOE trustees negotiating as part of a team with the Fair Lawn Education Association during my last year of service. Less than a dozen people know what happened during these negotiation sessions.
With that said, It disturbs me that the Fair Lawn Education Association has taken a stance to ignore their professional responsibilities. Many students have attended Board meetings to not only support the budget but to support the teachers in their quest for a new contract.
Now these students need their teachers to support them in their QUEST to advance in their lives and further their education in the institutions of their choice with the help of the teachers they look up to for guidance. To turn their backs on these seniors is a severe dis-service to not only them but to our community.
Does a union contract have to spell out every detail of what is professional responsibility? It's about whether a student will succeed, whether it be a recommendation letter or extra help to a student struggling.
There are many professionals in the Fair Lawn School District. It's unfortunate that certain members from the administration, staff and professional services guide how decisions are made, students are educated and policies made that will ultimately guide Fair Lawn High School graduates into society.
YES, it is about the children of Fair Lawn....It should not be about egos
Mongo
9:14 pm on Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Hey, I'm a teacher. Is this entire article and comment stream based on fact or rumor? Thats the first question to ask as Fair Lawn goes into a frenzy. Its a shame the board of education has allowed the contract negotiations to go this far without progress. They are responsible for this situation. The teachers must be frustrated. Its up to the board of ed to come up with a solution and fast. If people are upset with teachers then they should be equally upset with the board. Teachers are hard working people and deserve a fair contract. Tell the board of education to do their part so teachers can rest easy and do their part, teach.