Chino Valley Teacher Nails It

Jeanette Bray is encouraging her community to pass a budget override for the Chino Valley School District. She wrote an informative piece worth reading. If only more of our teachers would reach out to the community to make them aware of what is going on in education.

From her story:

The AZ state legislature, for years, has proven that its dedication to school improvement isn't backed up with money. This continues to leave AZ at the bottom of the nationwide research on teacher pay, student teacher ratios, amount of money spent per student, extra programs. As a teacher in Arizona, I can tell you, the disconnect we feel from our state legislators can not be made up for by the great administrative support we have at the district and school level. Not only that, but the state is getting ready to announce, what will surely be, additional and significant cuts in the states education fund for the 10/11 school year. For the collection of teachers and programs that survived the Reduction In Force (RIF) last year, this new impending series of cuts is daunting. We are asking ourselves "How can I do my job if you cut any more?" All is not lost however, in this state budget crisis there has also been individual school districts within the state that achieve great accomplishments, namely because it has the unwavering support of their community and parents.

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I am asking you to think about what our community and children need. In this economic recession we know how hard that is for some families to do. Some of those families that are struggling the most are our friends and family that were laid off last year or had their pay cut in half due to previous cuts at the school. My heart hurts for them and I understand their struggle. But I also feel that the survival of our schools and the dedication to our children is too important not to sacrifice for. The override election will be held on March 9th 2010; save our community, save our kids and vote yes.