Teacher to Wichita school board: ‘Invest in me’

Wichita teacher Eric Dodge told district leaders Monday that he can no longer support his family on his teaching salary, and he urged them to reconsider budget priorities to direct more money to employees.

“I’m tired of money being invested in curriculums, intervention programs and evaluation systems,” said Dodge, a kindergarten teacher at Park Elementary.

“Invest in me. Invest in my colleagues. I make the difference. We make the difference, not the programs.”

Days after the Wichita school district announced it had reached a tentative contract agreement with its teachers union, two teachers addressed school board members and criticized the deal, saying it amounts to a pay cut for them.

“The past couple years I’ve been hanging on. I’ve been grinning, I’ve been bearing it. ‘It will get better,’” Dodge said.

“With this contract, I will be in dire straits. … My expenses keep going up along with my workload, but my salary remains the same,” he said. “This year is the year that I become broken.”

Kelly Cotton, a teacher at Curtis Middle School, told board members she plans to vote no on the contract because a proposed one-time bonus will not make up for new health insurance premiums and other costs.

She also encouraged leaders to reconsider budget priorities. During contract talks and rallies earlier this year, union leaders urged school board members to cut back on initiatives such as the Multi-Tier System of Supports, AVID and a new Marzano teacher evaluation system.

“We have enough computers and technology. We have enough curriculum. We have enough programs, we have enough mandates,” Cotton said.

“It is time for you to focus on your employees. … I will vote no to send you the message that the beating down of teachers has to stop.”

The comments prompted a pointed discussion between two board members later in the meeting.

Betty Arnold said teacher raises aren’t an either-or proposition because the district can’t drop initiatives designed to increase student achievement.

“The implication is our students are where they should be, and this (data) doesn’t support that,” Arnold said.

“We have to invest in our teachers, and certainly the job that they have done has been amazing – but not to the point that we can dismiss equipment, curriculum, or any of those other things.”

Board member Joy Eakins said the district should consider scaling back on some programs because of increased costs and dwindling staff.

“All of these are good things. Some of these are going to take us really far. But in the meantime, we can’t do them all,” Eakins said.

“As a district, one of the things we need to consider is looking at: Where do we get the most bang for our buck? Where do we impact learning the most?” she said.

“Instead of saying, ‘Let’s do 10 things,’ what if we said, ‘What are the two or three that are really important that we can handle with this staffing load?’”

Superintendent John Allison told board members the district needs intervention programs and other initiatives aimed at improving performance, particularly among students who struggle.

“Our students are not where they need to be. They’re not meeting the highest-level standards that have been established by the state,” Allison said.

“As we look at … all the various ways in which student performance is measured and the district is held accountable for, it’s going to take a combination of all of the above.”

This story was originally published October 11, 2016 at 9:51 AM with the headline "Teacher to Wichita school board: ‘Invest in me’."