My fellow board members and I have received numerous e-mails from staff and district residents regarding the proposed budget reductions. Please keep them coming because the more people we hear from the better in my opinion. While I do not answer many e-mails, because the board decided that the board president would respond, I do read them all and review the specific comments to help give me a point of view that may or may not align with mine.
I do have one issue with some of the e-mails we have received. Those that have been in support of one teacher and how we need to save this one individuals job is a bit troubling. The discussions that I have been a part of and the proposed cuts as I see them are not about one teacher, but about programs or staff positions. It does not matter to me who fills a specific role, but more a question of is that position(s) a must keep position. Teachers will always come and go but the position may remain.
I am sure that some will take exception with this point of view and I understand why. We have good teachers and no one, including myself, wants to lose any of them. However, based purely on the financial reality we may have to lose some. An organization as labor intensive as a school district can only cut so much around the edges before it comes down to staff and programs.
Sometimes a program is deemed non-essential and gets cut which also reduces staff. Sometimes reduction in staff is deemed an appropriate step in order to save a program. It is a delicate balancing act, but in either case the labor intensive organization has to reduce costs thru staff reductions. This is just the grim reality.
Please keep the e-mails coming, but be assured that any potential cuts (as I view them) are not about individual teachers and rather about the actual position or program.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Jason-
ReplyDeleteI think you are missing the point. I think the folks that are writing in about one specific teacher understand that, traditionally, that is the way it is, but encouraging the board to figure out a way to make an exception to the rule. Jill is simply too talented to be let go- and no matter how much music gets cut- and it should be- find a way to keep her. That is the point. If you are getting so many letters about a specific teacher, it must mean something.
This teacher is in this positon because of the rules her union has bargained and because she chose to leave MG and then come back, losing her seniority. This is a very unfortunate example of what happens with teachers' contracts and it is not the board's fault. Also, what if she chooses to leave again? She will be gone, but the program will continue. Let's look at it the other way around, should we eliminate any program for which the current staff are not liked by parents?
ReplyDeleteAgain I look at the position regardless of the teacher, because teachers will come and go.
ReplyDelete