Dear Board,
My name is Lisa Cooper and I have enjoyed teaching for the
Orcutt
Union School District for 20 years. Addressing the Board tonight
is a
first for me. Tonight I would like to remind you of what makes
our
school district great. It's PEOPLE.
It's the people who put their heart and
soul into educating the students of this community. For many of us,
these students are the children and grandchildren of our
friends,
neighbors, and colleagues. We teach them, advocate for them, and care
for them as if they were our own. Many of us, having
grown up in this
community, feel a responsibility to pay forward what our
teachers
instilled in us. A love of learning, confidence in the face of
challenges,
and respect for those who take pride in their work. Right now,
Orcutt
teachers are not getting the respect that we have earned. The
state has
provided the funds for our fair compensation, yet our own School
Board
is refusing to make us, the PEOPLE who make this a
highly respected
educational community, a priority.
In 2015, I saved $1,400 in receipts for out of pocket classroom
expenditures, knowing I can only write off$250 of this on my
taxes.
used my meager classroom budget primarily to purchase
construction
paper- a staple in Transitional Kindergarten. A fair cost of
living
allowance will allow me to continue supplementing my classroom
budget out of my own pocket, as I have done for 20 years.
Thankfully, my husband, a teacher at SMHS, and I usually receive
a
decent tax return each year. But due to the split payroll we saw
a loss of
$5,976. This is a hard hit for a family of five with two special needs
children.
Orcutt has always taken pride in offering its teachers a salary
schedule
that can compete with local districts. But we have fallen behind
and
continue to fall behind. How are we to continue attracting the same
caliber of educators? Temporary teachers are contemplating
leaving
Orcutt for higher paying districts and who can blame them? I
have
many close friends who teach in Santa Maria Bonita. They are
just as
talented and dedicated as we are, but they
do NOT work harder than we
do. Please tell me what the incentive is to work the extra
hours, come in
on weekends, and spend my own money on my classroom when I make
thousands less than my neighboring colleagues. Due to the
teacher
shortage, which is only increasing, many districts will be allowing
teachers to transfer in with more years of credit. We are
hearing
numbers like 10 and 15 years- maybe more! It would be heartbreak
for
many of us to leave this district that we love and care about
But in the
end we have to be able to afford to teach AND take
care of our families.
Please invest in the PEOPLE who make this district great by
offering an
equitable salary schedule that will continue to bring the BEST
teachers
to Orcutt.
Lisa Cooper
Dear Board,
I will leave the particulars of the negotiations to others. I am here to speak to the issue of communication. When the members of a group: a family, a football team, a drama troupe or a school district cease to communicate openly and honestly and with respect, then the very foundation of that group begins to erode. That is a foundation that has been built up over many, many years in this community. We owe much to those who preceded us. We need to work hard and commit ourselves to honoring that work.
Everything we do here and at our respective schools should serve the best interests of our students. As our letter head says, “Where kids come first.” As we come together to express our views and try to make ourselves understood, I would hope that we realize that that can only happen if we also seek to understand. Unfortunately, we oftentimes allow our egos to cloud our vision and keep us from entering into the kind of communication that is needed so badly right here, right now. The us against them dynamic sends us into a foxhole mentality that leaves no room for progress.
Please understand that I am talking about all of us here. Each of us plays a very important role in meeting the daily needs of our students, and we all know how much they sometimes need. We will be here when our current students have moved on to high school and beyond. It might feel that we have time to work these things out, but we have to remember that their needs are immediate and often dire. What happens tomorrow in our classrooms can have a lifelong impact, for better or worse, for our students.
What I am asking is that each of us do the best we can to lower our guard, to open our minds and to try to understand what we can do to best fulfill our duties. In 1914 German, British and French soldiers emerged from their trenches on Christmas Eve and exchanged gifts, sang songs and shared fellowship. To me, that is an inspiring and powerful illustration of the human desire to come together and find a semblance of peace. We, as a community. could embrace that now. If that coming together could occur during war, how much easier should it be for us today? Thank you!
Beth Karamitsos
Good evening Trustees,
Teaching is a hard job. Nonetheless, it is a career that we love, and that we do effectively. We work hard to keep up with the ever-changing demands and challenges of education. I have taught in Orcutt for over 26 years. I, like my teaching colleagues, continue to put in many extra hours weekly to make sure the students get what they need. We are the ones that wake up in the middle of the night worrying about how we can help students struggling with the English language, or how we can support 2 brothers who are now living at the homeless shelter. Our work goes beyond the daily routines of the classroom setting.
I am a Resource Specialist at Nightingale (part of the special education department). Currently, my caseload is made up of students with learning disabilities, autism, and health impairments. These students are primarily in the regular education classrooms and come to my classroom for a small portion of their day to get academic help. However, their regular education home-room teachers have taken on the additional responsibilities of IEP meetings, special behavioral plans, compiling data, individualized curriculum, and additional collaboration time for these special needs students. Teachers carry out these extra, unnoticed, often unappreciated, and never compensated duties. It is a demonstration of their value of putting kids first.
Each special education student comes with an individualized educational plan. As teachers, and as a district, we are obligated by law to fulfill the services, supports, and accommodations of these individualized plans. We are facing increasing student numbers to our special education department and many of our caseloads are bursting at the seams. We have 500 special education students who receive services, not quite 10% of our total student population. The California State Dept. of Education has a cap on the number of students that can be on the caseloads of resource specialists - that cap has been exceeded.
We are already facing a teacher shortage here in Orcutt in our special education department. In spite of ongoing, valiant efforts by our pupil services director, there have been unfilled positions for a speech pathologist, an additional resource specialist, instructional assistants. One speech pathologist accepted a position last year, but changed her mind when she saw how much the cost of housing is here.
Who pays when we cannot attract enough special educators? General education teachers do, special educators do, but most importantly our students do— they are the ones who need and deserve the most support. We have a director who is supportive and tirelessly works to maintain our special education programs at a high level. But she cannot control the numbers, the economy, or the salaries.
Jenny Brennan
Hello,
My name is Cheri Craft. I have been a teacher in this district for 23
years, and like many of my colleagues, this is my first time ever speaking at a
board meeting, and I can’t say it’s a bucket list kind of thing. I do, however, feel more frustrated than ever
before and I want to share why.
Teachers are Givers!
Yes, we have a very demanding
job. But we chose it. We understand the planning, learning new
curriculum, differentiating for each student, interacting with every parent,
dealing with various academic/social/emotional needs, the importance of building
up children’s self esteem, helping children learn how to interact and work
together while still learning the core subjects, the paperwork and grading that
often takes place in the evenings and on weekends, etc. etc. The job is very difficult and very demanding
but it is also very rewarding.
However, there’s more! There are “Extra-Curricular” activities (clubs,
committees, coaching, etc.) and these positions need to be filled primarily by teachers. Teachers fill these positions, often for
free; and meetings are often held during lunch or after school. Again,
Teachers Are Givers!
I have always prided myself on my
willingness and openness to try new things, to participate fully, to say
yes.
For instance, I’ve said yes to being a:
·
Battle of the Books Coach
·
Math Bowl Coach
·
Safe School Ambassadors Facilitator
·
Student Council Coordinator
·
Talent Show Coordinator
·
Odyssey of the Mind Coach
·
Tech mentor
·
Student Teacher Mentor
·
BTSA Mentor
·
GATE teacher
·
Adoption Committee participant
·
RTI Task Force Member, most recently, and the
list goes on.
I’ve spent time away from my family
to attend many conferences to improve my craft including the:
·
Reading Conference
·
GATE Conference
·
Math Conference
·
CUE Conference
·
CPM Conference
·
PLC Conference and more.
I’ve also attended countless county
workshops and traveled to several “Site Visits” to observe other schools implementing
best practices. And I am not alone.
The point is that I have GIVEN to this district on a consistent
basis. I’ve worked hard and I don’t feel
that my work is being valued, as it should.
It seems to me that when a company values an employee, they respect and
reward them in some way and that, usually, comes in the form of
compensation.
I quote from a tech commercial I
recently saw: “Your employees define
your business, your people ARE your
business. Stand behind them, put them
first.”
I didn’t go into teaching to become
rich; I did so because I wanted to do my best to make a difference for
kids. I, along with all of my colleagues
in this very room, are doing just that, AND
THEN SOME! And, we deserve fair and RESPECTFUL compensation for that.
Cheri Craft
Dear Board,
Dear Board,
I believe that each of us in this room want the same thing – we want to
make a difference for the Orcutt district. We may go about it differently, but
there isn’t anyone here who is in it just for themselves. So what has happened that we have arrived
at such a mess as this? More importantly……..what can we do to change the atmosphere?
There are two very important tools that I use in my classroom that we
can and must use. I am certain that our
fortunes as a group of people hinge on two critical factors –respect and proximity
Respecting a student means
observing how hard they work, learning what struggles they face, and measuring
my words to ensure that I encourage and support their efforts. My success as a
teacher does not depend on the right curriculum or the number of contact
minutes, but on how I treat my students as individuals. If they do not think
I care about them, they will not thrive under my leadership. They must
learn by watching my actions and listening to my words that I care deeply about
what happens to them. For the year that they are entrusted to me, they must become
my priority.
Proximity is much more fun
to demonstrate, but no less important. If I teach from the front of the room
and never get near a student, they do not get the message that they are
important to me. I choose to move around because of what it says to my students
– your teacher likes you! We cannot have a healthy relationship with our
students from afar. Proximity says “You are important to me; what you do is
valuable”. I want to see what you’re up to!
As a teacher, I don’t think I can have one without the other. If I say I
respect and care about my students, but I am distant and silent – what will
they assume? If I do not work to know them, be inconvenienced so that they are
a priority – how will they ever get the message that I am on their team?
Teachers….we need to change some of our ways. We must be willing to set
aside negative assumptions. We must recognize
that we’re all on the same boat, and we all – administrators, the school board,
our parents and fellow staff - must row together or we will eventually sink. We
have to be willing to share, clearly but kindly, what we feel. We need to be
willing to get up close and use proximity.
· School Board….Dr.
Blow…..these are difficult times in Orcutt. Everyone in this room understands
that we do not have the income of other districts. We all get it. We also clearly
understand that what is at stake is not really just salary. It is not working
hours. It is not benefits, or the technology we might use. It is our future to attract and keep new teachers. It is the need
for leadership that demonstrates respect. And it is an aching need for a school
board and a superintendent who use proximity to show what is important.
Get to know us; observe how hard
we work, what we struggle with. Measure your words carefully. We are listening,
we need encouragement and we need to know that we are valued.
Use proximity. None of us can lead
from behind a table. Get out in the schools. Talk to teachers. We want a
healthy relationship between OEA, the administrators and the school board. It
would make Orcutt stand out; it is not the norm, but it should be. We
are……….ALL……in this together.
Roberta
Hough
Dear Board,
My name is
Janell Provost. In my 16 years of
teaching in Orcutt, I have never spoken in front of the school board. On October 26, one of my fellow Special Ed.
teachers came to you and asked for help.
She and her family (which included a newly adopted infant daughter) asked
you for a favor which would have cost the district nothing extra. The help she and her family asked for was
refused. In my mind, we are a family in
Orcutt. In my mind, this AMAZING teacher
was following Orcutt’s motto, by putting her students first each and every day,
in one of our classrooms where students need the most daily support. She even tutored Special ed. students over
the summer. I can’t think of a more
heroic way to put students/children first, than to adopt one like she and her
husband did.
This heroic
teacher’s baby daughter was born on October 3 and was in a Newborn Intensive
Care Unit in Santa Cruz for 10 days.
This teacher was able to utilize her seven (7) personal necessity days,
and five (5) AB 109 days which gave her a total of twelve (12) days. However, because her baby was born 3 months
before January, she sadly discovered that our California law only allowed maternity
or paternity leave for babies born naturally to parents and she did not have the same rights as a
biological mother It was a painful
experience to learn that she could not receive differential pay while on leave
like her peers who were biological mothers.
This is a
law that our very own Monique Segura (along with a committee), was instrumental
in changing, in Sacramento, and it went into effect on January 1, 2016. This law is entitled AB-375 School employees:
sick leave: paternity and maternity leave.
It now allows for, “maternity
or paternity leave which means leave for reason of the birth of a child of the
employee, or the placement of a child with an employee in connection with the
adoption or foster care of the child by the employee”. According to this law, which changed only 3
months after her baby was born she would have been allowed the differential pay
after her sick leave was exhausted.
You, the
school board also had the right to approve this “maternity or paternity” leave
to be extended to adopting parents as well as biological parents. On October 26, this teacher, asked you, the
school board to allow the AB-375 law, which took effect January 1, 2016, to be
deemed appropriate for her situation. Her very humble request was denied.
In my mind,
professional athletes are NOT heroes. In
my mind, movie stars and rock stars are NOT heroes. To me, anyone who puts a child first is my
hero. Teachers and parents who adopt
children are my heroes. My friend
Monique Segura, who adopted her 3 daughters, and went to Sacramento to help
change laws in order to help parents, is my hero.
This teacher
has resigned and Orcutt has lost an EXCELLENT special ed. teacher. This is a teacher who is part of a district
who prides itself in the motto that Students Come First. Well, her newborn adopted baby is a potential future student in Orcutt. We are ALL begging you to remember that you
can’t put students first when you put their parents and teachers last.
But, what’s
most tragic is that Orcutt Union School District has lost one of its heroes.
Janell Provost
Dear Board,
When it came time to go to college I worked three
jobs to put myself through school. When I started teaching with the Orcutt
School District, I went back to working three jobs. While being a brand
new teacher and all the hours that required, I worked at Delta doing
independent study and I waitressed at Red Lobster at night. Working that
hard was nothing new to me and I did not look at it as an embarrassment that I
had to work at a restaurant sometimes serving my own students. Sometimes
you have to do what you have to do. However, I think a school district
should be embarrassed if their teachers can't make enough of an income to be
able make a decent living in the community in which they live. Further to
become a teacher is no small thing; the education required, the multiple tests
needing to be passed, the months of non-paid student teaching. Is it surprising
there is an astronomical drop in people becoming teachers? Perhaps
millennials don’t want to be tens of thousands of dollars in debt and then have
a teacher’s salary to live on. Perhaps millennials are not interested in
working in a very stressful job, being accountable for the education of 30+
children, their safety, character development, communicating with 30+ sets of
parents who range from thinking you’re doing a great job for their child to
that you’re the devil incarnate. Perhaps millennials don’t want to work 9 hours
a day for which they are only paid for 6 ½ . Or work for free on the weekends
and during the summer.
But we
all know that no person becomes a teacher to become wealthy. But what
about just getting paid what a baby sitter makes? After 16 years
teaching, I've calculated that I make before taxes $2.30 per student per hour. That’s
$2.30 for my contract hours only…not the time I work after school, in the
evenings, etc. Now I pay my babysitters almost 2 times that amount to
watch my two boys. If you have kids you know how valuable having a great
baby sitter is...but here's the thing.....my babysitters never taught my boys
to read, my baby sitters have never taught my boys their math facts, or
algebra, They never heard about ancient civilizations, nor anything about plate
tectonics from a sitter. My sitters have never worked with my boys on
creating movies or editing video footage. Further, my baby sitters have
never graded a single paper while she was on the clock getting paid....and I
certainly never handed a pile of papers to a sitter and asked for her to grade
them on her own time. My babysitter has never sat in an IEP again neither
paid nor unpaid. My sitter has never done 3 to 4 straight hours of parent
conferences several days in a row where only half of that time was time where
she was being compensated. My babysitter has never had to answer email,
after email from a parent wondering why their student is failing when their
student never turns in any work. My babysitter has never had to have a heart
to heart with any student begging them to engage in their education and not
give up. My sitters have never had to hug a student while they cried
because their home lives are such a mess, or explain to them that their step
parent doesn’t really hate them, or carry the heart ache of listening to a
student share that they are so stressed out because their mom drinks and hasn't
come home in 3 days. My sitter has never done any of these things....But I
have....I've done all of them and so much more. I do it gladly for my
students. But I don't do it so that I can be taken for granted by my
school district who counts on teachers to sacrifice and give, give, give, because
we love what we do and we love our students. I know that I will never see
a salary that would come close to being what my babysitter makes per hour per
kid.... BUT DO I THINK I AM WORTH THAT MUCH???, for the job I do, for the
impact I have on the students. Absolutely. Why don't you?
Tania Kim
Dear Board,
Dear Board,
Good evening
honored board members, administrators, teachers and guests. My name is Valerie Trenev and I teach sixth
grade at Alice Shaw. I have been a
teacher with the Orcutt Union School District for 20 years. The focus of my short speech is Our
Legacy. I place the emphasis on the word
“our”. Together we have journeyed
through the years educating and raising literally thousands of Orcutt
youth. Orcutt is special because of the
Orcutt Union School District. When I
think back to when I first started in this district thoughts come to my mind
like – “Orcutt is the place to be”. “It’s better in Orcutt.“ I was actually
offered a job elsewhere and I chose Orcutt, because it was the best. In my first years, at Orcutt Junior High, I
can remember several special family members related to our current board. Your son, Mr. Buchanan was there. I remember what an honor it was to know that
he was there at our school. Mrs. Zilli –
remember that trip to Magic Mountain where you asked me to go on that extreme roller
coaster twice? You know how that turned
out. Mr. Hatch – helped my fifth graders
who were trying to make Santa Maria a better place with their class project
Mission Possible, Change Santa Maria? Your
donation helped to strengthen our project and make it award winning. Dr. Peterson, you are a revered member of our
community. Ms. Phillips and Dr. Blow –
you are “newer to our district”, but what a great start you’ve both had
here. We are excited about new programs
and having our district be the best ever. Truly, together, we have journeyed
through the years.
Creating lasting
memories, educating children and giving the youth of our community the best
start they could have. My own son,
already 15 – is a sophomore at Righetti and a great water polo player. My daughter Laura is 20 years old now – a
junior at SDSU – wanting to be a pharmacist.
These two young people and many more have had their start in our great
district. We need to keep the OUSD
tradition strong. The youth of our
community need and deserve it. Strong
schools make a strong community. We are
at an important turning point. Our
demographics are changing. There are
more needy families. There are tough
decisions to be made. As a veteran
teacher of your district, I urge you to make the decision to continue to invest
in our community the way you have in the past.
Investing in our schools, by respecting and supporting our teachers at
this time is a win-win-win. The students
clearly win by having better instruction with high quality teachers. Our families win by their children being
properly educated. Our neighborhoods win
because, with a good education comes young people that care about their
community. Property values can remain
high. Our schools depend upon a stable
teaching force. Stability among teachers
is what makes our schools strong.
Teachers who remain at their sites for a given length of time can
fine-tune their teaching through consistent collaboration with each other over
the course of years. We want and need
our teachers to stay. We want and need
to attract and retain good, quality teachers.
We want and need teachers who are at the top of their class. Our students deserve that. To attract and retain quality teachers
through offering a competitive wage, shows respect to not only the teachers,
but to our community because you care enough to give our students the very
best.
We will all
eventually move on. New board members will fill the vacancies. New people will become our
administrators. New people will fill the
teaching positions. What will our legacy
be? How will we be remembered?
The decision
is before you. Please make the right
decision. Support us. Respect us. Support our community. Invest in the Orcutt
of tomorrow. Thank you.
Valerie Trenev
