Our students and schools need you on August 14th

A professor of mine at the University of Northern Iowa told my class, that being an educator meant more than teaching. Being an educator meant being an advocate for the children in your classroom and school. My professor repeatedly told my class this throughout the semester. It wasn't until I entered my school for the very first time that I truly understood why my professor wanted us to understand that being an educator means being an advocate.

Far too many of our children are voiceless. They don't have anyone advocating for their basic needs. This basic need includes education. Unfortunately, some of the people who are making the big decisions regarding our students education, see our kids as being nothing but dollars. Unfortunately, too many in the public see our kids as being nothing but failures.

An unexpected school board meeting was called tonight to address the 2008-09 Fiscal School Budget for MPS. The Journal Sentinal published that a board meeting would be held to discuss the budget. There were maybe 10 people at the meeting, and this includes the reporter from the Sentinal. There would have been 14 people, but four people left after waiting 20 minutes for the board to end their private executive session in the conference room. I am most grateful that those four individuals came, because they were friendly WEAC members.

While they were there, these four individuals were able to hear citizens, who are extremely involved in the MPS budget process (and they were talking about school board recruitments) belittle our schools, our teachers, and our union. They engaged one individual, and after 20 minutes, it was time for them to go to where they needed to be. I stayed and listened to these Milwaukee citizens speak so negatively about the jobs we are doing every day in our schools. I even overheard one individual share with the group about an administrator telling him that three "bad" special education teachers received poor evaluations and so they were moving on to new schools.

Waiting for the board to move out of their executive sessions was one of the most frustrating experiences I have ever had. I bit my tongue to stop myself from lashing out at them. All of them, with the exception of one, had nothing positive to say about our schools, our teachers, and our union.

Fortunately, the meeting ended quickly. Director Bonds motioned the meeting be adjourned for several grounds, which I can not remember all of them. On a five to four vote, the meeting was adjourned. Directors Bonds, Director Hardin, Director Morales, Director Falk, and Director Blewitt voted to adjourn the meeting. This was a big win for us!

The point of this meeting was to look at the budget and make cuts. The first two items on that chopping block are the full-time ParaProfessionals in all K4 and non SAGE K5 classrooms and the restored 40 EA positions. I'm not sure what else is on the chopping blocks, but some of the board are ready to furthur drastic cuts to a very thin budget.

Again, these board members are looking at our children as being dollar signs, nothing more. They don't understand that we have a responsibility to educate the whole child, not just produce a targeted test score.

I am so thankful that the board meeting was quickly adjourned, because our students were voiceless tonight. They didn't have their advocates at the meeting to speak up or stand up on their behalf.

I understand that we are all busy and have lives outside of our schools. However, we chose to enter the education field because we want our students to have a great future. Our students need us to wear our advocate hats more often for them. They need us to be their voice at our school board meetings. I understand that many of us write our school board members. I also understand that many of us call our school board members frequently. We find time to do these things because we care about education in MPS and our students. However, our students and our schools need us to be present in the audience at these school board meetings. The school board makes their decisions in front of the audience, not in front of your letter or on the other end of the phone. If we aren't in the audience, they don't feel the pressure.

I am asking all of you to please attend the August 14 school board hearing and advocate for our students and schools. Please attend this school board meeting, and be a voice for our students. It is our words and actions that give a voice to our voiceless children in MPS.