Why Are Teachers Leaving Oakland?

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At Oakland High, teachers are still working more than the minimum hours, though they did protest by closing their classrooms to students during lunch. Photo courtesy of KALW Crosscurrents

By Jeremy Dalmas, KALW Crosscurrents

It is  8:08 a.m., the Friday before spring break, and under other circumstances Kathleen Byrnes would already be at work.

“We would be in our classrooms preparing for the day, which is where we would rather be,” she said.

But instead, she is out in front of Oakland’s Cleveland Elementary School with her fellow teachers — not working. They are waiting seven minutes until 8:15 a.m. exactly. Since February, teachers have been protesting low pay by working from only from 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. — the minimum hours required by their contract. It is called work-to-rule. And it means things that parents expect, like student evaluations, are not making their way home. They are sitting unfinished in baskets.

Read the complete story at KALW Crosscurrents. 
 

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