AMEN!!!!! RENAE.
Pam Ellison
Como Park
Saint Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: Renee Jenson
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 9:40 AM
Subject: [StPaul] Teacher unions
Uh, thanks for all of your kind emails offlist to my last post on salaries
for teachers. I have a feeling it might be fruitless to answer some
personally, but there is one more thing I want to say.
I have been a HUGE supporter of unions since I was a school board member in
the White Bear Area School District in the early 90's. At that time we were
going through some huge financial difficulties with the defeat of our levy and
some huge cutbacks by the state. One year we had to cut 20% from our budget
and another year 10%. We had to let over 120 teachers go, had 45 kids in our
classrooms, and had to close schools.
During all this turmoil we had hundreds (literally) of parents in the board
room telling us to fire the teachers that had been there the longest because
they made the most money.
Now can you imagine if we fired our most experienced teachers during all of
this turmoil, the teachers that mentored the younger teachers, the teachers
that could handle 45 kids in a classroom, the teachers with all the experience
and knowledge? Luckily there was a union that prevented that kind of
foolishness.
And yes, I believe in the step and lane system of reward for our teachers
too. It rewards them for keeping their education current and for years of
experience-which is very necessary when you put kids with learning
difficulties, kids that don't speak english, kids with handicaps or mental
difficuties, etc- in their classroom. I had one first grade teacher with 35
kids in her classroom and 3 autistic kids. Luckily she was one of our most
experienced and best teachers. Besides, who wants a teacher in the classroom
with knowledge that isn't current?
So yeah, I support our teachers, and I support their union. They need it
especially whne resources are tight and the public is screaming to fire them
after they have given their lives to kids and their professions because they
"make too much money".
Ren�e Jenson
Como
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