Trust is eroding in SAD 4
To the Editor;
Life-long lessons are hard to forget. When I was 9 years old, I joined the Prairie View Rockets 4-H Club and had to learn our club pledge, which we recited at each monthly meeting. It was instilled in us early, and came to be a daily way of life for us young farm kids.
Today as I face struggles at work, I close my eyes and it comes back to me, word for word, “I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service and my health to better living, for my club, my community and my country.” I try to live the lessons from this pledge, to do my best for others, and when I do, everyone wins.
But, these days in my office at SAD 4, I am questioning my clearer thinking, and wondering how numb I am becoming, giving loyalty to a budget and school district that cuts my position by 20 percent. I have not yet been able to change the service level; we have just begun round three of this year’s budget process. My health is already on the rocks with surgery scheduled for late August to get a new right knee. But yet, still, here I am, fighting to educate the general public and hoping the majority will win out and our district will vote in a budget that will provide the public education to our children, which is our responsibility as tax paying citizens of this community and country.
Some of the personal values I treasure are hard, honest work, responsible behavior and trust, with and between all people. I have been told the trust levels are very weak, perhaps totally gone within our school district. When we lose trust within our communities, I am truly sad, and even more afraid of the trend spreading throughout our country and our world. One way to gain back what has been lost at SAD 4, is to become more educated about how the school budget process works, and the role staff and students and local taxpayers play.
Remember the pledge of clear thinking and larger service? Can you claim you are truly giving more of yourself to others and your community? What have you given up in the school budget to ensure our students’ education gets funded? I see staff being paid a full salary, but only working half-time or less. Handshake agreements, with old supervisors, undocumented, how smart is that in this age of lawyers and court claims? Why would you assume the new administration should let it continue?
And other past behaviors which should have never been allowed, are being stopped and discontinued. Folks are being told “no more” and they don’t like it. (Taxpayers, we have been listening.) Complaining you have more to do every year, and deserve a salary increase is understandable, to a point. Why does one group deserve a pay increase more than another group? All the staff have been hit with increased health costs, security scams, and bigger workloads. Why would you expect the teachers to take on more responsibility without more pay? But oh, hey wait, that is what you are forcing everyone else to do. And everyone else gets paid a lot less than the teachers receive for only 182 days of work.
There are no real increases in students or classroom sizes, enrollment is declining, more and more every year. Don’t get me started on long days, and extra hours. I average 12 hours of work every 260 days in my schedule. (Cut to 208 days in this budget.) My annual salary for a full year of work is much less than the average teacher. Is that fair? Is that equitable? Why do I keep doing it? Yes, I am totally numb.
The word compromise has come up in many conversations lately, at board meetings, at the national political conventions, on the nightly news and radio shows. My favorite line, “when we refuse to compromise, progress fails” sums up the message I want to share today. Everyone needs to take a hard look at themselves, and wonder what can I give, rather than what can I get?
Today l pledge my head and hands to serving SAD 4. When I see everyone else working towards a compromise for our school budget, trust me, my heart will be loyal again.
Cindy W. Pullyard
Sangerville