Last week over 100 people came out on a blustery April afternoon to show public support for our teachers. The rally was a great event and a wonderful way to show the teachers of Springboro that we care about them. They have been shown so little respect from our school board in spite of doing so much for our kids and our community. It is important that we the people of Springboro let them know that we appreciate, respect, and support them. it is troubling to many in the community when we see board members make public statements such as “Why do we need to rally behind the district’s teachers?” The teachers are their employees, and this is what they say about them publicly when the community expresses its gratitude for the incredible job they have done for our children. In the private sector, businesses work hard to build organizational trust and morale, but somehow this board seems to view these concepts as unnecessary provided they have the votes to impose their will on our community. This board completely refuses to recognize the incredible work the teachers of Springboro have done for our children, work that is well documented by The Ohio Department of Education.
Why do we need to rally behind our teachers? We need to rally behind the teachers because otherwise they will be forced out of our schools by a board that puts politics before common sense and the common good of the community. The board is proposing to lengthen the workday for teachers, eliminate planning periods, get rid of class size restrictions, reduce employee benefits, restrict the input of teachers in district policy, all while lowering the net pay of most employees. For all of their hard work and dedication, for all of their accolades and awards the teachers are being presented with an offer of do much more and get much less. Even in these difficult financial times, this offer makes little sense if the goal is to strengthen the long term viability of our district and ensure the educational success of our children. It appears to many that the board’s proposed contract was written with the goal of forcing the teachers to strike, which is sad. Our teachers are hard working people who just want to be treated with respect.
The goal of the board should be to strengthen our educational system for the benefit of our children and our community. It should not be to force the teachers to strike to prove a political point. Our teachers have earned the respect of this community through their dedication, sacrifice, and consistently outstanding results. They deserve better from our board than to be threatened and bullied. We ask that our board members put their personal political agendas aside and work with the teachers in a spirit of collaboration. For board members to tell our teachers to quote “check their egos at the door,” is insulting to the integrity and commitment of our teachers, who have willingly sacrificed so much for our children and our community. I can’t fathom running an organization with such blatant disrespect for employees, particularly employees whose performance is on par with the best in the state. They deserve to be treated with respect. We will keep speaking out until they get it.
