Viewpoints: Pay cuts won't solve city schools' woes
Published: Saturday, Jun. 12, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 11A
We teachers wear many hats. As front-line educators, counselors and managers, we put in long hours constantly conceptualizing, planning and implementing better ways to do what we love most – teaching children skills and strategies to think and create, to produce quality work that exceeds their expectations and meets state standards.
But at the Sacramento City Unified School District headquarters, the message is clear: Reducing employee compensation is a top priority.
Now there's a sure-fire method to attract and retain the best and the brightest!
As a 19-year veteran of SCUSD, a mentor and Best Practices demonstration teacher and a certified Gifted and Talented Education practitioner, I am disheartened at the direction in which my district is heading.
A battered economy and education deficits will lead even the most measured of leaders into panic mode. But this time, the Sacramento City Teachers Association, comprising nearly 3,000 dedicated teachers, counselors, librarians, psychologists, speech therapists and nurses, is being pushed into an acrimonious abyss that is dangerously eroding employee morale, and that's not good for anyone.
Our new superintendent, Jonathan Raymond – former lawyer, politician, CEO and chief of
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/12/2816935/pay-cuts-wont-solve-city-schools.html#ixzz0qePg2sVt
