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A potential new source of workplace friction arises in Detroit's school system.
Chalkbeat Detroit has details:
Teachers and staff in Detroit's main school district could soon have to tell their supervisors if they are supplementing their salaries with a side job.
The school board's policy committee last week approved a new policy that says the district "expects employees to disclose outside employment" and bars employees from working a second job while on any kind of leave. . . .
Rules for outside employment under the current employee code of ethics do not require employees to disclose their second jobs.
The full board will decide whether to proceed after a review, writes Amanda Rahn, a 2017 Wayne State graduate in her second month of a reporting fellowship at the local education news site.
Tension emerges already, Rahn reports after talking to a union leader and the Detroit Public Schools Community District's new superintendent:
"The bottom line is until you start paying teachers enough money, until then, people have to do what they have to do to make ends meet," said Ivy Bailey, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers. "It's really none of their business about what teachers do on their off-time unless it's a conflict of interest."
Such conflicts, in which a teacher’s second job might interfere with his or her ability to fulfill responsibilities to the district, are exactly why the policy is needed, said Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.
"As we’re rebuilding the district, we really want to avoid as many conflict of interests as possible," Vitti said. "We’ve seen instances where there are conflicts of interest at the district level at the school level with all employees, so we’re just trying to be proactive with the culture of the district." . . .
Vitti has vowed to increase teacher pay, and a new contract ratified last summer gave teachers their first real raise in several years. But that was not enough to bring teachers back to where they were when they took a 10-percent pay cut in 2011.
Dawn McFarlin, a past Detroit teacher now in a suburban district, sells T-shirts that show local educators' pride.
These are among reactions to the article at Chalkbeat's page on Facebook:
- It's not their business! -- Koren Adams, retired Detroit teacher
- So glad I'm out, it seems to be getting worse for you all. It's none of their business what you do when you leave work. -- Rita Jensen
- They really know how to make teachers feel like second-class citizens. -- Tamara Mitchell, Detroit
- How about pay them sufficiently? Problem solved. -- Kristian Boyd, Detroit
- Professionals who have to work a second job because their primary job's salary is too low should tell their bosses every day that they have to work two jobs. The employer should be embarrassed by that fact. -- Matthew Maday, Grosse Pointe
- How about better pay? -- Regina Head, retired Detroit teacher
- It's none of their business what they do after school. -- Pauline Hugan, Detroit
- No -- this is crazy! -- Shanita Burnett-Lacy
- So they must want to lose the little bit of teachers that they're barely holding onto. -- Jasmine Jarmon, Oak Park elementary teacher
-- Alan Stamm
