On the evening of September 18th, 2012, at Hellas Restaurant, the TAAAC Association Representative Council voted by a fairly wide margin to accept the tentative Fiscal Year 2013 Negotiated Agreement.
On the evening of September 19th, the Anne Arundel County Board of Education voted 7-2 to accept the tentative Negotiated Agreement. Educator-friendly votes came from Patty Nalley, Solon Webb, Nick Lafavor, Andrew Pruski (President), Theresa Milio Birge (Vice-President), Deborah Ritchie, and our new member Stacy Korbelak.
Board members Kevin Jackson and Amalie Brandenburg, explained their respective positions on the Agreement, pronounced their high regard for teachers; then voted in the direct disinterest of those they so highly regarded
During the Board’s discussion there was concern raised of potential reprisal from the County Executive and Council during the FY2014 budget cycle. Our elected officials down at the Arundel Center defunded every penny that was intended to provide salary improvements and demanded that no pay increases were to be given in FY2013. Even though what we managed to pull from scarce resources was little more than a crumb, it was a defiant act in the eyes of the Calvert Street crowd. If that reprisal occurs it will be to the direct injury of students and the educators that serve them. It will be up to all of us; teachers, specialists, educational support staff, and parents to remind those in elected office that we matter and we vote, and so do our friends and families.
