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Furlough days have not disappeared but are still a reality of my work conditions.

I live and work under a furlough-imposed contract of Christmas past, haunting the school year and providing fewer instructional days and little time for me to prepare my room for students at the beginning of the year, after holidays, and at the end of the year.

Any days without students are spent in meaningless “workshops” or capriciously suspect data-gathering/reporting paperwork sessions. December 17 was the last teacher furlough of 2012. There was no school for students and no work for teachers.

The union is interested in restoring furlough days and teacher pay that was reduced two years ago with possible raises that are long overdue.

The union sent a survey to teachers to learn of their top priorities; also if they are willing to strike to press for favorable terms for a new contract, now almost three years overdue. The union wanted to find out if teachers were planning to leave their positions if a new contract is not favorable in terms of pay raises and working conditions. Results of the survey will be forthcoming and part of contract negotiations as hard evidence of teachers’ needs for the basics of a safe and healthy work environment. We teach our nation’s future citizens, after all, so teachers should be healthy.

Instead, being evaluated at least once a week for my job performance has left me exhausted, angry, and overwhelmed. Try keeping up with the new anachronisms that seem to be created monthly. Try resting your vog-dust-mold affected eyes in a mandated after-school meeting and you’ll need to give the Vice Principal a doctor’s note or you’ll be put on Pep-T (evaluation that could lead to termination). But that is fodder for another column.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association did not let teachers know about progress in negotiations, only that they were going on (“they’re sitting down at the table now, as we speak …”) in a meeting held at our school on December 10, and that teacher evaluations were at the top of the list.

HSTA seemed to be gathering more “facts” and “evidence” from teachers and asked if teachers were willing to testify on certain issues. The meeting was mainly about this and what teachers know about the Race To The Top implementations at their schools. HSTA has enough facts, evidence, and testimony to choke a horse, as the saying goes, and then some.

A teacher who traveled from the Leeward District said that her Complex Area Superintendent was responsive to teacher needs and implied that her superintendent did not act like a despot of a small, military state.

One teacher said that we need to get rid of HSTA and have the AFL-CIO as our teacher’s union.

Also shared were examples of teachers being policed, counselor needs being ignored and the Comprehensive Student Support System overloaded with unmet needs of students. One teacher attended trainings comprised of three teachers with four district resource teachers “training” teachers. This is a typical scenario.

Much anguish and outrage were in teachers’ voices. Teachers spoke harshly to each other at the meeting in an attempt to gain HSTA’s ear and have their heartbreaking requests heard.

The December 10 meeting really shook me up. Teachers are angry with the system, with the governor, and with the Complex Superintendent. Race To The Top implementation is half over and teachers have only received more paperwork mandates.

The state has plans to implement what has been “piloted” at our school and mandate this statewide. Our school will be a “good example of what works.”

This was not only disconcerting to teachers but some left the meeting in anger. Teachers said that they play along until the data-gatherers “go away” so they can get down to the nuts and bolts of teaching.

I did some soul searching that evening and could find little reason to remain at my job. Watching bullying has the same, if not more, of a violent effect on one than if you are the one “getting it” and getting it good.

My column seemed fluffy and of little substance when I drove home from the meeting. I realized, yet again, I am a small cog in a huge wheel of power play and teacher bullying.

I am an articulate person but I do not have the right words for what I felt after last week’s meeting. However, I was cheered up by HSTA’s rejection of the State’s first offer that was publicized a few days later, on December 12.

I felt a little bit hopeful, a little bit like a teacher.

Teachers really like that Will Okabe is taking a tough stance in the media and in communications to teachers, but he does not seem tough enough; the HSTA has seemed to cave in to the DOE many times in the past. Teachers remember this and speak of this often.

This school year, teachers had to come in on July 16 at our school in order to take two weeks of mandated “Professional Development” before school started. Teachers sat in day-long informational sessions that used to last two days. Each hour was filled, each familiar topic dragged out a whole day.

I don’t remember having even one day to prepare for the upcoming year. One teacher I checked with said we did have a day given to us to prepare for the year. Now, I can’t recall.

What I do remember is that in order for my school to spend Race To The Top Funds, dumbed-down, dragged-out, redundant information was force-fed to teachers. These teachers were chomping at the bit to prepare classrooms, gather up textbooks and have some semblance of lesson plans beyond the mandated lesson plan/pacing guides.

These add up to mumbo-jumbo (folders filled with useless, abstract phrases) junk intended for teachers to teach-by-number like paint-by-number paintings that seem interesting at first and then are retired to a back closet to collect mold. It is like having to sit through previews of movies you’ve already seen dozens of times before the real show begins. You don’t have popcorn or a drink. You sit through these for two weeks.

Teachers are beyond exasperated at the snail’s pace and at the stamina being required of them. This has created a “hostile workplace environment” with intimidation and harassment of teachers by administration as frantic data must be submitted in order to fulfill RTTT reporting requirements. This is what’s behind the scores of grievances brought up to the teacher’s union every year in the form of contract violations as terms of the (current working) contract are repeatedly ignored.

It has been said that the repeated efforts of union negotiations fall on deaf and dumb governor ears — and that legislators are beginning to pay more attention to the treatment and working conditions of Hawaii teachers through letters to the editor, Facebook, blogging, articles, sign-waving, word of mouth, voting, YouTube testimony, radio, advertisements and any action at all by teachers. Those are actually putting more pressure on the governor to negotiate for an excellent contract for teachers.

For the union, restoring furlough days is the focus in order to make gains down the road when kindergarteners are teachers. For current teachers, this should be a starting point to gaining a living wage, fair work conditions, eliminating evaluations as tools for teacher harassment, and holding school administration to terms of the contract. It should not be a document to be creatively interpreted by each principal, but as an insurance of upholding terms of employment for labor performed by thinking individuals in a free, democratic society.

What is it called when you are paid for time and service performed for someone else? A job? What if you are not paid for all your time? Paid volunteer? Indentured servitude? What if you are paid but spend this money to support yourself and your family as everyone does, but are then expected to donate time and part of your earnings outside the parameters of your job to the same place of employment?

Add up the time and money teachers spend outside contractual hours and this adds up to a bizarre form of modern slavery. Teachers “want the moon” in seeking fair pay for their services. They are finding their jobs difficult to afford and feel like they are indulging in some extravagant hobby or pastime that is too expensive to keep.

Susan Kay Anderson teaches English at Pahoa High School and Hawaii Community College on the Big Island. She has taught in island schools for nearly two decades.