Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913

On the Glasgow School District Levy Failure

I have two young children who will be future students in the Glasgow school system. My hopes for them have always been to be taught by teachers who care about them, who will be their mentors, who will guide them towards being productive citizens of society and to be the guiding force to teach them all that they need to know.

I am very disappointed to hear Glasgow residents decided to vote against the school levy, which would have given competive pay to teachers in the district. These teachers work hard to make sure their students succeed, in all aspects of life. They are mentors, friends, a shoulder to cry on, a comfort place for children to let out their secrets and struggles. Teachers have a special gift to be able to reach out and connect with children of all ages and backgrounds. They sometimes have to be creative in order to help make a student succeed, but they never give up and fight for that child.

Teachers need to be compensated for the work that they do for our area students. They shouldn’t have to work a second job in order to make ends meet. We shouldn’t have to say goodbye to teachers, who are also our community members, because they accepted a job elsewhere for the money needed to make a living. We shouldn’t get the “bad apples” of teachers because they are the only ones willing to accept the salary offered for the position. Glasgow shouldn’t be the “stepping-stone” for recently graduated teachers, in order to get the experience necessary to move on.

I hope the failure of this levy is a wakeup call for those in charge of Glasgow schools that something needs to change in terms of getting the necessary funding to keep and retain quality teachers. Asking voters to pass levies is clearly not working, so please, for the future of our children, our community, do something different. Being more transparent and being available to answer public questions would be a good start.

 

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