As the end of week two of the teacher’s strike comes to a close, emotions are high across the board. Parents and teachers alike are anxious at the idea of school continuing to be closed, and students are starting to miss the structure of school. The picket lines stay joyful but the elephant in the room can’t be avoided; teachers aren’t valued enough to be given the most basic of things. 

Details surrounding negotiations have been kept to a minimum, but parents and students have gotten bits of information from emails and press conferences done by the district. The information shared by the union and the district is starkly different making it hard to tell what is going on in the negotiation room. The one certain thing is that the union and the district are still far from where they need to be to reach an agreement, and people on both sides are becoming increasingly frustrated. 

The union has been furthering its action to push the district further and encourage settling soon. ESPs, students, and community members have shown up to march, chant, pressure, and dance the district into settling. On the lines educators and students have been marching with their picket signs while also trying to add joy with music. A collective of band teachers from all over Minneapolis have come together to make a strike band that can be heard during union wide pickets. Music isn’t the only thing bringing up energy, chants have also been a big part of the pickets. Chants like ‘Hey hey, oh oh, Ed Graff has got to go’ have been popular on corners across the city. On top of the picket lines and union-wide marches, students held a sit-in outside the negotiation room and also attended a student strike at the Davis center. Support for educators in Minneapolis is strong and that support is putting pressure on the district. 

Educators are doing their best to hold the line during this time of uncertainty and the support from their students and other members of the community has not gone unnoticed. If you want to support your teachers here are a few action items:

ESP donation link:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/esp-strike-fund-for-southwest?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer 

Strike support fund: https://workingpartnerships.betterworld.org/campaigns/minneapolis-federation-teachers 

Who to contact:

https://board.mpls.k12.mn.us/meet_the_board 

Call/email script:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17YCiXo2VuUg6xk3lZIvsMDDW0LCGh3Pu2WvAv1PlUqw/edit