Anyone who chooses to work in the media has to accept the fact that, no matter what, there are always going to be readers unhappy with something that has been printed. The personal nature contract negotiations between the Goodrich School District and its teachers has taken is a shining example of this phenomenon.
District officials feel that the teachers union is unwilling to accept certain realities about the funding and budget crunches that all public school districts are facing. Teachers believe that district officials have been extremely dishonest and overly stubborn throughout the negotiations. Each side accuses the other of using shady or miscalculated numbers, trying to mislead the community and, above all, hurting the children seeking an education in Goodrich.
My contention is that if the interests of the children were truly the foremost concern of either side, this situation would have come to some kind of resolution long ago. It hasn’t, which leads me to believe that power, distrust, money and other issues are really at the heart of this struggle.
This saga outdates our publication. The first issue of the Grand Blanc View came out in May 2005. Our first edition had an article on this subject. Our issue last week also had an article on the same topic. For two years, the form of “negotiating” has included laying off an obscene number of teachers (only to call all of them back later), leaking information to the media, picketing at school board meetings, claims that both the teachers’ union and the district lie about the numbers they present to the community, a parent being escorted out of one board meeting by police and subsequently wearing a prison jumpsuit to the next one (don’t ask) and numerous complaints to this newspaper (and, I am sure, others) by both sides that particular stories favor one side or the other. I simply ask, if this is about what is best for the school children in Goodrich, what type of example is everyone involved in this mess setting about mature and professional behavior among adults?
The media is just as culpable for making this situation worse, and we accept full responsibility for our share. We have allowed several wishing to weigh in on the subject the chance to do so via our Letters to the Editor page, we have run, camera in tow, to photograph teachers picketing and put them on the front page and caved to every administrator or union member who felt “their” side of a story was not accurately portrayed, requesting that they be given their say in a subsequent article.
Although I am sure no one is envious of the situation the teachers working without a contract are in, I really believe that there is little newsworthiness left in this story. That is, until significant headway is made toward resolving the matter.
As a media outlet, when something has as big an impact on a community as this so obviously does in Goodrich, it is nearly impossible to say that no more coverage can be given. But when it comes to a point that the media is being used as a tool to present heavily debated data as fact, to personally attack others involved and to further or undermine each other’s causes, it is time to say “enough is enough.”
It is time for both sides to stop sniping at each other in news articles, stop writing defamatory Letters to the Editor and simply get this contract done. Journalists often get the reputation of beating a story to death, but in this case, we are walking away. That is not to say this has not been a passionately debated and important issue. It has been, but it has also been poorly handled, and there is nothing that can be added to the public discourse on the matter that will be helpful until there is a workable resolution.
It is obvious that there is distrust and, in some cases, outright dislike between people on both sides of this issue. Tough. The one commonality is that all of those involved are paid taxpayer money to make the school system work. Professionalism, decorum and, most importantly, an ability to effectively handle difficult situations are all part of the jobs you signed up for, whether you are an administrator, teacher, board member or other stakeholder.

More Tips