Teachers Say They Will Stop Doing Extra, Unpaid Work

With tension rising over contract negotiations with the Elk Grove Unified School District, the head of the district's teachers union announced Tuesday that her members will stop putting in any extra hours not required by their contract in January.

That means no unpaid study halls, college recommendation letters or prep time.

Elk Grove Education Association president Maggie Ellis said at Tuesday's school board meeting that the union chose to take job action for the first time since the 1980s after negotiations became hostile.

"I hope we can all make a New Year's resolution to mend a damaged relationship," she told the board.

Dozens of teachers packed into the meeting cheered the announcement.

Teachers have been at odds with district officials over how to close the district's budget gap, with the district wanting to impose next year.

District spokesperson Elizabeth Graswich told the Elk Grove Citizen teachers were "within their right" to stop doing voluntary work.

As with most labor actions, it's unclear how many of the union's members will observe the so-called "work to rule."

But students and teachers at the board meeting said some teachers already were.

"They arrive at 7:45 and leave at 3:15," Brittnie Johnson, a senior at Monterey Trail High School, told Elk Grove Patch. Johnson said many students in her fast-moving physiology class had trouble with a recent quiz. Normally, the teacher would have allowed them to retake it.

Instead, "he said because he was working to rule, he couldn't allow a retake," said Johnson.

Johnson, whose mother teaches at Monterey Trail, urged the board to reach an agreement with teachers.

"Now we have a problem, because you are messing with my future," she told board members.