vision2020
Re: School cuts...
Don,
Well said. It is too bad the Moscow Community has been insulated from the
realities of how much it costs to run a school district.
Example, in 1978, the budget for the MHS Science program was nearly $5 K
total per year for 5 teachers, each with teaching loads of 125+ students.
(Back then it was was less than $10.00 per student per year.) Today, 23
years later, the teaching loads are similar and the budget is now approx.
$4.5 K, resulting in even less than $10.00 per student per year.
I cannot consider doing most of the labs, demos, exhibits and processes
which I did in 1978. Progress and enhanced course curriculums have been left
to the inginuity and creativity of each of the 5 current science teachers.
Yet we are still under the close scrutiny of many members of the Moscow
Community regarding whether we are doing a 'good, up-to-date' job. I work
with students in a 1940's classroom with little or no budget, equipment,
supplies, facilities and district curriculum support. My personal donations
have long since dried up in light of the withering raises due to my position
at being 'topped' out on the salary grid. And, I too, like many of the newer
teachers who are facing possible job loss, am left wondering what miricles
are expected next?
Larry Volkening
MHS Physics and Chemistry
Don Kaag wrote:
> According to the Moscow Education Association, member teachers should
> "speak with one voice" as an association, so you don't see too many
> letters to the editor or emails from individual teachers.
>
> Regardless, fresh from an after-school staff meeting to discuss the
> impending evisceration of the Moscow School District, this is just my
> two-cents' worth as an individual and a teacher that works hard every
> day to teach MHS kids Government, U.S. History and Advanced Placement
> U.S. History. My opinions are my own.
>
> AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF MOSCOW
>
> Imagine going to work every day knowing that no matter how good a job
> you do
> there is no possibility of still being in that job next year.
>
> That is the situation our youngest, newest, teachers find themselves in.
>
> They came to Moscow School District 281 in the last five years or so,
> full
> of energy, new ideas and idealism, and now they face an uncertain
> future.
> They love teaching kids, they're good at it, and they are just beginning
> to
> put roots down into the rich soil of our community. But teaching kids
> in
> MSD may not be in their future. The Administration calls it "being
> Riffed":
> seventeen percent of our teachers, gone.
>
> Many people picture teachers as nebulous, chalk-dust-covered, personages
> who
> get unplugged and rolled into a dark closet after the afternoon
> dismissal
> bell rings and on weekends. We are not some cartoon-caricatured "those
> teachers"; we are citizens of this town, too. We are your neighbors, we
> go
> to your church, we are the leaders of your kids' Boy or Girl Scout
> troops.
> We can be found coaching Legion baseball and girl's softball teams and
> volunteering for community projects. We have lives, too. We take
> courses
> at UI. We buy our groceries in the local food stores, gas our cars at
> local
> stations, eat local fast food, and buy our clothes at the mall. Many of
> us
> have spouses and children. Our kids are the friends of your kids.
> They go
> to school together. We own houses or rent apartments in this community.
>
> Thirty-point-three of us may not be here in September.
>
> The Administration says that these are tough economic times. The School
>
> Districts' utility bills have mushroomed. So have ours. This school
> year,
> teachers are working on a contract in which most of us did not even keep
> up
> with the annual rate of inflation. Many of us have been teaching here
> in
> Moscow for years, have raised our families here, and are at the top of
> the
> "steps and ladders" pay scale in teaching experience and longevity. This
>
> school year, we got a 2.5% pay increase. Social Security recipients got
>
> 2.6% this year, as bare-bones compensation for inflation. We keep
> getting
> further and further behind.
>
> Those of us who are "maxed-out" on the District pay scale typically are
> between 45 and 60, which means that we are Masters-degreed teachers with
>
> over 30 postgraduate credits past our Masters' degrees. We worked to
> become
> highly educated in our fields so that we could, in turn, educate your
> children. In the United States as a whole, teachers, as a
> college-educated
> class of professionals, are the lowest-paid class of college graduates
> given
> their educational level and years of experience. On top of that, Idaho
> ranks 48th in the nation in teachers' salaries. We are amongst the
> lowest
> paid teachers in the nation. Teachers with the same qualifications
> working
> for Pullman School District, as an example, make an average of five
> thousand
> dollars more per year than we. In addition, each year in living memory
> our
> District medical benefits have decreased and our yearly out-of-pocket
> contributions to the mandatory-membership medical insurance plan has
> increased. How can we afford to send our kids to college?
>
> The Administration and School Board of Moscow School District may find
> the
> Law of Unintended Consequences at work this spring. The teaching staff
> has
> heard the Administration cry "wolf", and raise the specter of massive
> layoffs and drastically cut budgets for classroom supplies and teaching
> materials. They anticipate involuntary transfers in subject areas and
> classrooms filled past overflowing with students next year, and no
> chance of
> a pay raise in the foreseeable future. Greener pastures beckon, and we
> may
> lose many more hard-to-replace teachers than we as a community plan on,
> or
> can afford.
>
> Meanwhile, uncertainty has teacher morale at rock bottom for obvious
> reasons, and that cannot help but affect attitudes, their general
> demeanor,
> and their teaching.
>
> That is not good for kids and it is not good for this community.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Don Kaag
Back to TOC