My daughter goes to an elementary school around San Jose. Being a California school, the buildings are just small wooden sheds that hold one classroom each. There are no covered areas, the doors open straight to the playground.
Kids usually drop off their backpacks and lunch bags right in front of the door. In winter, when it rains, it means the stuff gets wet and icky. One of the buildings had a wooden shelf with hooks attached to the wall. Very simple construction, but serves its purpose nicely: you can now put the lunch bags on the shelf and hang your backpack on the hook.
I noticed that other classrooms (5 of them) did not have it, so I thought: the school probably has no extra money for this, why don't I make the shelves for them. So, I measured the existing shelf, drew a sketch and talked to the principal and the teaches. They were all psyched - the shelf was installed by the district, and the school indeed did not have any money for more. They teacher who had the shelf told me she bugged the district forever to get even this one installed, so if I could make the rest - it'd be like a gift from heaven.
So, I'm practically ready to go by the wood and hooks when the principal says: "hold on, let me run this by the maintenance guy".
Uh-oh.
Two days later he comes back to me and says: "Sorry. No can do. If you do this, you take away work from the unions, and they will file a grievance with me." Me: "but you don't have the money to have the unions do it either!" Principal: "That's right. Well, they will eventually do it, it just won't be as quick if you did it". Which means: no shelves for another year at least.
This is fucked up. The Union is so expensive, the school can't afford a simple wooden shelf, yet the Union won't let anyone else do it even for free!
Ffuuu....
Kids usually drop off their backpacks and lunch bags right in front of the door. In winter, when it rains, it means the stuff gets wet and icky. One of the buildings had a wooden shelf with hooks attached to the wall. Very simple construction, but serves its purpose nicely: you can now put the lunch bags on the shelf and hang your backpack on the hook.
I noticed that other classrooms (5 of them) did not have it, so I thought: the school probably has no extra money for this, why don't I make the shelves for them. So, I measured the existing shelf, drew a sketch and talked to the principal and the teaches. They were all psyched - the shelf was installed by the district, and the school indeed did not have any money for more. They teacher who had the shelf told me she bugged the district forever to get even this one installed, so if I could make the rest - it'd be like a gift from heaven.
So, I'm practically ready to go by the wood and hooks when the principal says: "hold on, let me run this by the maintenance guy".
Uh-oh.
Two days later he comes back to me and says: "Sorry. No can do. If you do this, you take away work from the unions, and they will file a grievance with me." Me: "but you don't have the money to have the unions do it either!" Principal: "That's right. Well, they will eventually do it, it just won't be as quick if you did it". Which means: no shelves for another year at least.
This is fucked up. The Union is so expensive, the school can't afford a simple wooden shelf, yet the Union won't let anyone else do it even for free!
Ffuuu....
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