Abe Smith
Letter to the Editor - Abe Smith
Teacher burnout is the number one problem facing schools across the country. The last two years have been tough for all working families, and our teachers and staff have been particularly overworked and demoralized, with the whole weight of the community on their shoulders.
The situation is particularly dire for the paraprofessional and special-education staff. These staff are the key to personalized student success, but their pay and promotion scale can be worse than many entry-level retail jobs. We are expecting these staff to rescue kids from precarious situations, while we keep these staff in precarity themselves.
Across the state, experienced teachers and staff are leaving. Many key roles are handled by only one person, with no backup. New teachers and staff burn up even faster, being thrown into stressful situations without sufficient support. We can’t keep going like this.
Now is the time for our community to step up and act on our shared values. We must ensure that current expert teachers and staff see a chance for growth and influence. We must ensure that young teachers and staff see Dunn County as a place where they want to build a stable long-term career. We need professional teachers to say “Yes, this is where I want to work. This is where I want to buy a house. This is where I want to live. This is where I want my own kids to go to school.”
This means providing good pay and regular promotion opportunities. This means stabilizing workload and setting predictable schedules. This means improving benefits at affordable rates.
Most of all, this means setting a culture of professional respect, where teachers and staff are confident that they can discuss problems openly—and try ideas collaboratively—without fear of retribution. This means working as a team of peers, seeking the direct advice and guidance of teachers and staff on tough decisions. It definitely means that we never place bureaucratic burdens on teachers that would take away from their preparation time or distract them from the kids in the classroom.
Across Wisconsin, teachers need our support on April 5.
-Abe Smith, Town of Menomonie, Dunn County, WI
Abraham Smith is currently running as a candidate for the board of the School District of the Menomonie Area.
Memberships
Clarification on Dunn County Silica Mine
I have received some flack on the article I recently wrote about the proposed sand mine in Dunn county. I was a little surprised, since those of you who know me very well know that I've had a past of opposing environmentally rapacious mining in the state. My intention in the article was not to denigrate the people who are opposed to the sand mine, but to encourage more participation in the community and the political system on other issues.
Blame me, blame how busy my life has been, or just blame plain old sloppy writing, but it wasn't my intention to sound discouraging toward the people opposing the mine. I think the mine is in general, as I said in the article, wrong-headed. Hoffman Hills is an amazing, environmentally significant area and the notion of disrupting life around the lands there is horrific. I haven't had a lot to say about this because there's already quite a lot being said about it around here.
I would like to invite anyone involved in the opposition to the sand mine to post information here - that's what we're here for - as a supplement to complaining to me personally if they feel I've misrepresented their viewpoint.
That being said, if you're interested in this issue, please go take a gander at the web site .
Press releases and other content not written by a specific Eye On Dunn County author are listed as Eye On Dunn County Staff.
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