Over 100 Flint teachers protest at school board meeting as contract dispute intensifies

Flint, MI— More than 100 Flint teachers showed up in droves to picket the Flint Board of Education meeting on March 13, 2024, amid an ongoing contract dispute between the United Teachers of Flint (UTF) and Flint Community Schools (FCS). 

The teachers were wearing Black T-shirts saying, “No Confidence” and chanting, “One, two, three, four, we won’t take it anymore,” and “What kind of power? Union power.”

Destiny Krueger, a 10^th grade English teacher at Flint Southwestern Classical Academy, has been teaching for four years. She said she was protesting the board’s decision to support her colleagues who have been working for the district for decades and have been “patronized” by the board.

“A lot of people I work with have been here for 20-plus years, and they are the backbone of my life. I can’t survive without them, and they’ve been treated very poorly,” Krueger expressed. “I need them, and I can’t make it without them. So we have to make this right so we can move forward.”

When asked how she will talk to her students about the teacher’s decision to call in sick if her students ask her about it, Krueger referenced the fact that some of her students are upset about the board’s decision to ban hoodies and cell phones in schools. 

“The kids want those things back … but until they come together and they address the appropriate people, it’s not going to change,” she said. “So I think this is a great example to set for them to say, ‘You have to come together if you truly believe in something, and you have to stand up for what you believe in.’” 

Aneta Wilkerson, a 5^th grade teacher at Brownell STEM Academy, has been teaching with the district for 40 years and was a student of Flint schools herself. This will be her last year with the district. She said the current state of affairs in the district is “sad.”

“The people that are coming behind me, they need to get whatever they can get,” Wilkerson said. “These kids don’t forget you… they honor us more than what people are honoring us now because they know what they got from us… they don’t forget.”

At the school board meeting, President of the State Board of Education Pamela Pugh was at the meeting to show her support for Flint teachers.

Pugh said the action of paying teachers fairly begins with changing policy.

“We know that we (Michigan) are at the bottom when it comes equitable funding, when it comes to inflation, when it comes to just making sure that we’re adequately funding our school systems,” Pugh said. “It’s policy decisions from Lansing, from Washington D.C., that have hurt our children and have prevented our educators from getting the pay they not only deserve, but need to take care of their families.”

Pugh said she and other officials are working to get the school district’s debt eliminated as it was for other districts in the state. The district asked for debt elimination in Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s recent budget plan, but none was provided.

During the public comment portion of the board meeting before the board voted to go into closed session, teachers pleaded with the board to reconsider its decision. 

Krissy Gatz, a Flint teacher of 31 years, was in tears as she addressed the board.

“I’m not sure how much longer I can choose to call Flint home. The pay cuts and the freezes we teachers have taken for years has cost me personally a great deal,” Gatz said. “Who will teach my babies when I have to leave?”

“Please talk with the union,” she pleaded. “I want to continue to choose Flint. Please.”

After going into closed session for further discussion, the board voted to go back to the negotiation table with UTF.

Superintendent Kevelin Jones said the district and the teachers need to unite and look for opportunities for debt elimination. 

“No one at this table believes teachers are making the proper compensation,” he said. 

On March 13, 2024, Flint Community Schools was forced to close its buildings and cancel school districtwide after more than 100 teachers called in sick. Flint Community Schools posted on its Facebook page that 119 United Teachers of Flint, MEA/NEA employees called in sick through the district’s Red Rover management system. 

“The district certainly does not appreciate how this unexpected school closure will impact our families,” the post read. “While the district understand that this school closure will hurt our scholars more than anyone else, the district hopes that UTF employees will return to work tomorrow, so scholars can be educated tomorrow.”

While teachers have no plans to call in sick again, Michigan Education Association Uniserv Director Bruce Jordan and United Teachers of Flint President Karen Christian said during a press conference on March 13, 2024 that the date for a possible strike had been chosen. 

The strike date has not been made public. 

The sick out is the latest move by UTF after the Flint Board of Education stood firm in its decision in January to reject a settlement agreement that had already been reached by UTF and school administrators, including three school board members. 

The agreement would’ve addressed reimplementing salary steps, a traditional school calendar, teacher recruitment and retention. Some teachers’ pay has been frozen since 2014, and the teacher salary schedule is the lowest in Genesee County.

UTF has filed Unfair Labor Practice charges with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission against the board because the settlement agreement was voted down after it had already been approved by the administration. 

UTF leaders were approved to stage walkouts or strikes on Feb. 14, and dozens of teachers then picketed outside the board’s Feb. 14, 2024 and Feb. 21, 2024 meetings. 

During the press conference, Christian said the board voting down an agreement that had already been reached “never happens, just here in Flint.”

“Since the school board refuses to take action, we must act,” Christian said. “We must act for the sake of our students, we must act for the sake of our schools, we must act for the sake of our community. The time is now.”

Jordan said UTF has requested several meetings with the district over the past few months, and those requests have either been ignored or denied. 

“Teachers did not make the decision to call in sick lightly,” Jordan said. “In fact it was probably one of the hardest, most difficult, most stressful decisions of their entire careers.”