Dear editor,
In USD 500 we pride ourselves on becoming innovative and in striving to be a top 10 district. Unfortunately, my teacher colleagues and I feel that we are copying the same authoritarian leadership structure that plagues the worst urban school districts throughout the country.
This hits us doubly hard because we also have a district that suffers the most from the inadequate and inequitable school funding brought to us most recently and harshly by the Brownback regime.
School funding matters a great deal, but beyond this, the most important factor in student achievement is the quality of the classroom teacher. This is why it is so important, especially in this age of devastating school funding, for USD 500 district leaders to reprioritize teacher retention. Sadly, over 250 teachers left the district last year and all signs show that even more that will leave this year. Most of us want to be here, but just need a signal that our work matters. One of the best ways for our board and superintendent to keep us here working with kids in KCK is to trust us.
Kids deserve great teachers who are committed to them. But we also need to trust that our district is looking after us. One of the clearest ways the district can start to show us they care whether we stay or leave is through our contract. Tellingly, last year we went nearly the entire school year before our contract was signed and we still do not have a contract for the current school year, 2016-2017.
NEA-KCK, our representative union, and the USD 500 Board of Education have gone to fact-finding, which means no agreement could be reached through negotiations, even when an independent mediator was brought in. Now, someone else must look at the facts underpinning negotiations and present what looks like the fairest arrangement. Still, the board can say no if it does not like what it hears.
We simply want the district to honor the salary schedule we agreed to several years ago that, while affordable, is competitive with other local districts for teachers that choose to stay in KCKPS. In fact, it costs less than a district proposal that results in far lower career earnings than those in districts like Blue Valley. Beyond this, we want a couple of things that all Olathe, Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley teachers take for granted: due process and adequate plan time. These items build a tremendous amount of trust among teachers for their leaders.
We feel this would be enough to save a significant amount of quality teachers for KCKPS kids. Perhaps more importantly, this would start to rebuild the relationship that teachers want to have with their board, superintendent and administrators that has been so sorely lacking in the last several years.
Unfortunately, our district leaders continue to respond with the same refrain: the district is too poor to retain good teachers. Because we see our superintendent and administrators (underpaid themselves no doubt) making better salaries than 90 percent of those who hold the same positions in other Kansas districts, we often wonder why the explanation of poverty only holds for teachers. This causes additional resentment because we also watch our district reject ideas aside from our affordable salary schedule, like due process and a plan time guarantee, things that cost very little. This makes it feel like they see us as an enemy or problem to be controlled, rather than a partner in the education of our kids.
While USD 500 teachers like me understand that Brownback and other ultra-conservative Kansas legislators are damaging our schools and kids with their despicable tax and funding plans, we also see a lot of room for our board leadership to listen to our concerns and take a clear-eyed look at the numbers, rather than trusting one or two people at the very top of the hierarchy in our district to tell them what is true.
This is not fair, it’s far from democratic, and worst of all it causes kids to suffer while they watch teachers walk around something like a revolving door. Our kids understandably come with more needs and teacher effort is greater because of it. We’re simply asking to be treated fairly and respectfully by our district leadership.
Please stand up for teachers who want to stay, inspire and challenge kids in USD 500. Contact school board members and tell them you want to keep good teachers rather than force them away. We want a great education for every child and we want to keep teaching in Kansas City, Kan. We just need our district to work with us, rather than against us, to start rebuilding a relationship that works best for students.
Michael Rebne, teacher