100 signatures reached
To: Wichita Public Schools Board of Education Members
Just A Little Respect
As teachers, school nurses, counselors, and support staff, we are calling on the Wichita Public Schools Board of Education (BOE) to support our plea for "Just A Little Respect" from the Board of Education in these incredibly trying times. The BOE should support the reasonable proposal submitted by UTW and open a path forward that relies on respectful collaboration with educators.
Why is this important?
We are tired of being continuously disrespected by the BOE when we get into negotiations each year.
The BOE and their negotiation team seem determined to belittle us and ignore our very real concerns and well-reasoned solutions. We all know that the BOE could work with us on these issues, but instead, we are treated as an impediment to their plans.
We could read through previous emails on negotiations or even clips from BOE meetings to show that we are not trusted to help guide our district to success, but more than their words, we can see it in their actions during negotiations. Why do we have to fight every year for steps and tracks? Shouldn't that be a given? Why are we not trusted to create lesson plans and manage our classrooms? We are highly certified and degreed professionals, right? Time and time again, the BOE shows through their actions that we are not worthy of respect.
Therefore, we offer the following statements to clearly communicate to the BOE that it is time for a shift in how we are treated.
Educator Voice
WE wholeheartedly disagree with how the district treats us and we believe that if we come together, we can convince the BOE and the wider community that we should be helping to lead the way for our schools to succeed. TOGETHER, we can work for the good of our students, our schools, our communities, and even ourselves. TOGETHER, we can begin to make our voice heard.
WE BELIEVE in an open, democratic process in providing an effective voice for the professionals working in our schools.
WE BELIEVE that educators can contribute quality ideas to reduce the need for substitute teachers through positive incentives instead of punitive measures like the attendance matrix.
Learning Environment
WE BELIEVE in the ability of educators to be knowledgeable of their students' needs, capable of producing meaningful lessons, and critical to the success of every student in our district. As a result of this belief, we cannot support actions by the BOE to allow different schools the ability to impose various restrictions and conditions on our pedagogy.
WE BELIEVE in our right to protect the learning environment for all our students, and we recognize the need for using effective supports and interventions to enable those students to return to the classroom as soon as they are ready for the learning environment, but we reject any proposal by the BOE that restricts our ability to use our professional judgment to temporarily remove a student when they are disrupting our learning environment.
Compensation
WE BELIEVE that we are not subject to a moral obligation to work for no compensation. To suggest otherwise, further exemplifies how the BOE does not respect us as individuals with needs and desires outside of our career.
WE BELIEVE that educator compensation as reflected in the salary schedule should at least keep pace with inflation which it has not since 2010.
WE BELIEVE UTW’s compensation proposal is fair and just.