Sunday Morning in Shoreline

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:54:19 -0700

My downtown Seattle place of worship this morning was about the last place I expected to hear about Shoreline Schools, yet there we were, featured prominently in the sermon. (Well OK, it probably did help a bit that my minister and his family live in Shoreline) What caught my minister’s attention was a conversation he had with his wife. She reported that on the day of the strike, she drove by a group of educators and parents picketing on the corner and surprisingly, welled up with tears. Why was she crying? Because she understood what the strike was about. “These educators were not striking over pay or benefits, they are striking over what they believe to be misguided administration priorities: choices that hurt kids. And when teachers believe there is an injustice, they march.”

Family Values

Perhaps this helps to explain why the strike has been so difficult to explain and understand. In labor disputes we are more accustomed to the concrete issues of pay and working conditions. Issues that embody heart, soul and faith do not readily come to mind when we envision folks walking the picket line. Yet these things are exactly what this strike was about. Nothing less than the soul of Shoreline Schools is at stake.

“We can tell our values by looking at our checkbook stubs,” said Gloria Steinem.

Maybe this is where the disconnect exists between District officials, the school board, and Shoreline’s educator/parent community: Finances are about more than “solvency” and “responsibility.” Our financial choices reveal what we honestly care about the most. Time and time again District officials have told us that for Shoreline Schools to be great again, we must be more like surrounding school districts in terms of finance and the priorities they reveal. Your teachers have responded loudly that while they understand the serious requirement of balancing the budget, they also demand creative solutions that prioritize our children. (Did you see parent Carrie Campbell’s piece in Saturday’s Seattle Times?)

And isn’t this what made Shoreline Schools great in the first place? Isn’t our focus on children a key reason why families seek boundary exceptions in order to get their kids into Shoreline’s schools and out of their local schools?

What Did The Strike Accomplish?

Since the day of the strike, I have been asked repeatedly: “What do you think the strike accomplished? Will District officials change the elementary thing?”

I am not confident that positive changes will be made in the area of elementary staffing this year. But I do know this: The strike served to communicate what must be valued most if our schools are to be great. Our mission must be about more than spreadsheets and budgets. Our mission must be about our children.

District officials believe that such a mission statement is naive. By staging a one-day strike, your children’s educators claimed that a focus on our children is not only the responsible and realistic thing; it is the essential thing.

Do The Math

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:33:52 -0700

According to Superintendent Sue Walker, Assistant Superintendent Marcia Harris, the Superintendent’s cabinet and the Shoreline School Board, teachers just don’t get it. What is it that your teachers are supposedly too dense to understand? Apparently we can’t do simple math.

District administration’s argument goes something like this: If only teachers understood that tough financial choices must be made, they would realize that wisdom of current district policies. “Fiscal responsibility”, “long term solutions”, “solvency”: These are the buzzwords of Superintendent Sue Walker’s current propaganda blitz. The implication seems clear: District administration and the school board are the responsible adults in this situation. Childish teachers are well meaning, but simply can’t comprehend what’s required to put our District back on track. That’s a job for the grown-ups, and by golly, somebody has to make the tough, responsible choices around here. For God’s sake, all we want to do is add more teachers to decrease class size? What could be wrong with this?

The Bottom Line

It is no accident that District administrators and the School Board use the language of the market. In District speak, Shoreline doesn’t have public schools. It is an “organization.” It doesn’t have a mission to teach children. It’s primary goal must be to maintain “fiscal responsibility” and “solvency.” It doesn’t have a personnel department. It has a “human resources” department. We are all just cogs in a machine.

A funny thing happens when folks start talking about the “bottom line” as being the most important aspect of a situation to consider: Integrity often goes out the window. The end justifies the means. Our leaders should not be questioned: They ultimately know what is best for us.

Teachers can add and subtract too

23+23+29 is all the math one needs to know to understand the District’s plans for Shoreline’s elementary students.

Let’s take a Shoreline elementary school with 3 classes for the fifth and sixth grade. In previous years , the District would balance these classes
by number and grade level for say, three classes of 25 (25+25+25) with overload assistance from paraprofessional support personnel. The District’s new plan is this:

23+23 + 29. Two classes under the overload cap, and one overloaded class with one hour of overload support a day. The other 80% of the time, the teacher and students in the class of 29 students get no extra support at all. What’s more, every time a new student enrolls at this elementary school, they add to the class of 29. The District will keep the classes of 23 artificially low to keep from offering overload support. Great if you are the kid and teacher in the class of 23. A disaster for that overloaded class of 29, 30, 31 or however high it goes.

When the superintendent and school board say they have hired new teachers, one imagines that these teachers will be opening up new classes, thus leading to smaller class sizes and improving instruction. At the elementary level this simply is not the case. The new teacher will be split between providing one hour of support a day for a handful of different teachers. Our district has never attempted to use a teacher in this fashion before.

The District’s plan to “improve instruction” comes at the expense of student learning and quality education.

23 + 23 + 29 does not equal an improvement in instruction.

What’s more, the School Board has already budgeted over $500,000 for overload support. Why are they refusing to spend it?

The Real Bottom Line

Your teachers get that money is important to running a school district. They know we must balance the budget. What they refuse to support is unnecessary changes that lead to a decrease in the quality of instruction for Shoreline Students.

Your teachers demand a Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources Director and School Board that are willing to collaborate with teachers, and act with integrity toward our common goal of bringing our School District back to greatness.

-David Guthrie

Why are teachers going on strike?

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 23:31:29 -0700

Dear Students and Parents:

When I last wrote to you on September 4th, it was to announce that 79% of Shoreline teachers had voted to ratify a new contract with the Shoreline School District, thus avoiding a strike and insuring a smooth beginning of school. I also posted my letter of September 4th on my course websites. District administrators recently ordered me to remove this letter from my sites.

Today, by a vote of 87%, Shoreline’s teachers voted to conduct a one-day strike on Thursday, September 27, 2007.

What Happened Since September 4th that caused teachers to take this serious action?

Some of you are already aware, particularly if you are a parent of a student in elementary school, that serious changes are currently taking place at many of Shoreline’s primary schools. Specifically, District administrators have ordered a reshuffling of students to different classes, this after three weeks of school. By this point, particularly at the elementary level, students have bonded with their teachers. On Monday, a significant number of these students will be moved to a new teacher. Also, some students will be assigned to split classes. For example, one class will be created that includes 5 fifth graders and 23 sixth graders.

This will also happen to a sizeable number of students at the Secondary Level. At Shorewood, students will be handed new schedules Monday morning and in some cases, told to report to new classes and new teachers.

At no time and in no way did the District consult or collaborate with classroom teachers, or their union representatives about these changes.

Superintendent Walker, Assistant Superintendent Harris, Human Resources Director Bill Fritz and the rest of the Superintendent’s Cabinet, have attempted to pass these moves off as an enhancement to the education of Shoreline’s students. Superintendent Walker did so in an open letter posted on the District website yesterday.

What the Superintendent did not state in her open letter is that the sole purpose for making changes to student schedules this late in the school year is to avoid funding extra staff and pay for the purpose of supporting students and teachers in overloaded classes. Over the years, your teachers have made sure that contract language protects teachers and students from being in overcrowded classes, and if classes must be overloaded, District administration must provide extra compensation and paraprofessional staffing to support teachers and students in overcrowded settings. Basically, it’s one large incentive for District administrators to adequately staff classrooms, rather than overcrowd them.

Some elementary principals actually contacted the Shoreline Education Association and asked it to organize against these changes. Yes, really.

So what’s the big deal? The District says it is lowering class sizes. That’s got to be good, right?

Yes, if that is what really was going on. In fact, only some class sizes will experience deductions in class size. Some teachers, particularly at the elementary level, will actually gain students and have overloaded classes, with no support from other staff, for up to 80% of each school day. District Administrators are essentially playing a shell game with staffing formulas and claims of educational value to avoid honoring the very contract that we just ratified!

In fact, other elementary principals have been pressuring teachers to ask their union for contract waivers to overload protection, because this would be “good for the kids.”

In a future entry, I will offer you the technical details about what this means and looks like, particularly for students and teachers at the elementary level.

Is this really just about a few students having to move to new teachers and classes?

No. This is fundamentally about the fact that District Negotiators bargained in bad faith, and are now attempting to violate the very contract they negotiated.

Superintendent Walker’s claim is that during negotiations, the District’s entire plan to implement the strategy explained above was communicated to the bargaining team representing your teachers. This is simply not true. At no time during negotiations did District negotiators communicate these changes. Not only this, it seems apparent that District negotiators not only failed to communicate their plans, but outright misrepresented their position on a variety of their contract proposals, and we are only now discovering what they were truly after.

SEA Response to Superintendent Walker’s Open Letter.

Hey, District Negotiators Tricked You Guys. Maybe you will smarten up in future negotiations but what’s done is done. That’s life in the big leagues. Now get back to work and stop whining.

Perhaps so. However, that’s not the way collective bargaining works. By law, bargaining parties in a negotiation must bargain in good faith. Misrepresenting, deceiving or downright lying about one’s position and intent in negotiations is an unfair labor practice, and that is why The Shoreline Education Association has filed an Unfair Labor Practices complaint with the state labor board. Your teachers ratified a contract they believed to have been negotiated in good faith. Now it is clear that this is not the case.

The bottom line is that your teachers perceive they are dealing with a central office administration that is a deceptive, untrustworthy and incompetent educational partner, justifying everything it does in the name of “fiscal responsibility,” or misrepresenting its strategies with claims of improvements for students and families. It is for this reason that your teachers also voted, by a total of 87% to 13% a resolution of “No Confidence.” In the Superintendent and her Cabinet:

• Sue Walker: Superintendent
• Marcia Harris: Assistant Superintendent
• Brian Schultz: Executive Director of Student Learning and Schools
• Sue Porter: Director of Teaching and Learning
• Amy Vujovich: Director of Student Services
• Bill Fritz: Human Resources Director

Why a one day strike? What will this accomplish?

Your teachers feel that a one-day strike is the best way to communicate that something is seriously wrong in the Shoreline School District. Hitting the pavement is simply the most effective way we know to communicate to Shoreline’s families that for our School District to move forward, it must have an administration that possesses integrity and competence. And it must have a working relationship between administration and faculty that is based on mutual respect, trust and collaboration.

We also know that at this point, more than a one-day strike does not make sense for our students and their families. The school year is rolling. We are building momentum with our students, and we want to do nothing that will seriously jeopardize student achievement.

With a crucial School Board election approaching, it is essential that we all understand just how high the stakes are for Shoreline’s families.

-David Guthrie

Shoreline Education Association Press Release. 9.21.07

Teachers and education support professionals in the Shoreline School District will stage a one-day strike next week to protest the Shoreline School Board’s decision to over-load classrooms and relocate students from their existing classes and teachers.

Members of the Shoreline Education Association (SEA) will strike Thursday, Sept. 27. Members of the Shoreline Education Support Professionals Association (SESPA) will join them in support.

On Sept. 4, after months of contentious negotiations, SEA members voted to approve a new two-year contract, narrowly avoiding a strike deadline. But since then, school district administrators have unilaterally implemented dramatic, unwarranted revisions in classroom staffing, changes that district administrators misrepresented at the bargaining table and in the final collective bargaining agreement.

Instead of distributing students equally across classrooms and providing appropriate assistance for large class sizes, Superintendent Sue Walker and the Shoreline School Board plan to cuts costs by dramatically overcrowding certain classes, to the detriment of both students and teachers. On Monday, district administrators plan to move possibly hundreds of students from their existing classrooms and teachers, disrupting student-teacher relationships and student learning.

During the previous contract negotiations, SEA members highlighted the poor financial decisions made by the Shoreline School Board and administration and the impact on students and the quality of education in Shoreline. SEA Co-President Elizabeth Beck said that by striking for one day, educators hope to focus the community’s attention on the misguided and harmful actions of the board and top administrators.

Beck said Shoreline educators are calling on the board and administration to drop their misguided plans to move students. “We’re fighting for the future of Shoreline schools,” Beck said.

Contract Settlement Reached

Tue, 4 Sep 2007 20:52:52 -0700

Dear Students and Parents:

It is with mixed feelings that I report to you that 79% of Shoreline Education Association Members voted to ratify a new contract today.

This Is What Democracy Looks Like

On the one hand, I am elated that school will start on time and that a strike has been avoided. I am also impressed and grateful for a community response that is clearly a major reason why I my colleagues and I will not be walking a picket line tomorrow. Simply put, Shoreline’s families decided to hold their elected officials accountable. And that’s what we’re supposed to do! As a social studies teacher, I know it has been a civics lesson for me, and hopefully for us all.

A False Choice

The very nature of collective bargaining means that no contract agreement is perfect. In the end I voted to ratify the contract, but not without deep reservations about the tradeoffs that were made.

Unfortunately, the School Board is still insistent that cuts be made in the areas of student activities and assistance for our special needs students. The mere fact that such items are in the teachers’ contract to begin with attests to the fact that in the past decade, Shoreline’s teachers have made real choices to trade take home pay for support of programs that directly benefit our students. For example, in past bargains, rather than increasing salaries, teachers have advocated for the funding and hiring of instructional aides to assist in classrooms that include students with special needs. Yes, this helps with teacher workload, but more importantly, it helps us to do our jobs better and that ultimately supports students and families.

Consequently, Shoreline teacher salaries lag behind many surrounding jurisdictions. Unfortunately, when the School Board is looking for politically palatable cuts, it is these very student supporting programs that it raids in an effort to balance the budget. (versus say, demanding decreases in teacher salaries)

The choice between support for our students or our livelihoods is a false one. This time around Shoreline teachers decided they could no longer make the false choice of forsaking one’s own family for the sake of someone else's. We also decided that our community and its elected officials must begin to take more responsibility for what is valued and funded in the Shoreline School District. This is the reason why your teachers voted for a 1% pay increase, over two years, to our supplemental contracts. This is in addition to the state manded 4.3% Cost of Living increase, of which, approximately 75% is funded by the State Treasury.

Challenges Abound

• Does our District want to effectively support its special needs students?
• Does it want enriching activities, clubs and other organizations for its students to be involved in?
• Are Shoreline Families willing to support these and other needs by holding their elected officials accountable?
• Are our families willing to live with a situation where Shoreline’s Schools are staffed at the state’s bare minimum requirements, thus resulting in larger class sizes and challenges to the personalized instruction our students deserve?
• Are our citizens willing to live with the fact that the State of Washington underfunds public education, pitting local school boards and educational professionals against one another in a fight over leftover scraps?

Perhaps this is more information than you needed, but I thought you deserved a more detailed perspective on what this settlement means and the challenges it posses for the future of our school district.

Trusting the Process

Building great institutions takes time, energy and commitment. It is my hope that this year’s bargain is a new beginning for the Shoreline School District as it faces the challenges, and pursues the promise, of public education in our great republic.

Good luck, and have a great first day of school.

sincerely and signing off,

--

David G. Guthrie
Shorewood High School
Social Studies Department

Strike Vote

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:48:12 -0700

Today, the Shoreline Education Association and the Shoreline Educational Service Professional Association voted to go on strike Wednesday,  September 5, 2007, unless a contract agreement can be reached by 6:00 A.M., Tuesday September 4, 2007.  Why are the Shoreline School District’s certificated and classified employees taking this action?  The SEA and SESPA voted overwhelmingly to strike if a fair contract is not offered by the Shoreline School Board. 84% of Teachers voted to strike. 85% of support staff voted to go on strike. In my 12 years in the district I have not seen Shoreline Employees more unified than they were today.  Members did not take this action lightly. If anything, it requires an incredibly serious situation to motivate educational professionals to take such a path. Teachers prefer to be in the classroom, doing their jobs. None of us are in this professions for the money, nor were we naive about the financial reality of choosing public education as a profession. We want to spend our time educating and supporting young people. Year in and year out, many of us gladly spend countless hours beyond our contract day to do just that.   Simply put, this is a last ditch effort to motivate the Shoreline School Board and Superintendent to finally take responsibility for over a decade of mismanagement.  This is about more than $429,000.  The Shoreline Public Schools Website would have you believe that this is essentially about the need to tighten our belts, make some minor sacrifices and then move forward. And indeed, if this year’s budget deficit were an aberration, there’s no doubt in my mind that your teachers and support staff would cinch up their belts and take the hit.  I am confident of this because it is exactly what we did in 1995, 2001, and 2004: Contract givebacks with the promise that we’d balance the budget and achieve stability once again.   The District Website would also have you believe that your teachers are demanding a 4.3% raise. They aren’t. 4.3% is the voter mandated Statewide Cost of Living Adjustment. The State treasury funds 75% of the COLA. The Shoreline School Board is expected to fund the difference, just like school boards in every other district in the state are.   Our District has been through 8 superintendents in the last 9 years. Our School District’s name is now synonymous with financial mismanagement, scandal, and superintendents who disappear into the night, leaving financial chaos behind. Your teachers and support staff are taking a stand for the positive future of the Shoreline School District, and at this time, this is the best way we know how to do this.  Isn’t this punishing students?  No one wanted it to come to this. This is why your educational professionals have been bargaining in good faith with the School Board and Superintendent since January 2007. Our hope is that the our stand will motivate District management to come to the table with a fair offer.  We believe that ultimately, this supports our students in the short and long run. We want co-curricular activities for students. We want support for students with special needs. And we want a School District that is on sound financial footing, which definitely supports students.   Where Else Could the Money Come From?  The School Board and Superintendent would have you believe that its employee contracts are the only place to get this money. However, they have rejected proposals to cut or modify following sources that could be used to make up the deficit
• Restructuring the Funding of ASB Accounts
• Making Christmas to New Years non-accountable days for Administrators
• Using interest from the sale of district property to balance the budget, rather than for hiring expensive consultants
• Eliminating program manager position.
• Eliminate or reduce athletic director and public information officer positions.
• Reduce administrators’ perks.
 Where Else Can I get information?:  To understand Shoreline Educators’ point of view go to: http://www.shorelineea.org/SEA_web/SEA.html  For the District’s perspective you need only go to the District web site.   Where do we go from here?  Bargaining sessions are scheduled for Thursday and Friday of this week. Our sincere hope is that a settlement can be reached that will stave off a strike.  I will continue to keep you posted.  sincerely,   --   David G. Guthrie Shorewood High School Social Studies Department

Negotiations Continue

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:45:18 -0700

Dear Shoreline Students and Parents:  First, it has been wonderful to hear from many of you. Thanks for your ideas, questions and support.  The Shoreline Education Association (SEA) and Shoreline School Board Representatives (The District) negotiated for 8 hours on Friday and 5 hours on Sunday without coming to an agreement on a contract. At issue is the District’s proposed $419,000 worth of cuts to the teachers’ contract. I should also remind you that bargaining between classified staff (SESPA, representing technicians, security guards, secretaries, office managers, etc.) and Shoreline School Board representatives is also at an impasse. At issue there is a district proposed 19% pay cut for these employees.   Specifics about the School Board’s proposed cuts:

High Impact and Inclusion Dollars  In the current teacher contract (which expires, August 31, 2007) funds are allocated to help struggling students succeed in general education classrooms. Students who directly benefit from High Impact and Inclusion dollars are often those with learning or behavioral disabilities. Consequently, regular education students and teachers also benefit from this program. Last year Shorewood H.S. employed four paraprofessional instructional assistants for this purpose. These assistants work in the classroom, directly with teachers in an effort to better support our students. The School Board wants to cut this for 2007-2008.   Activity Pay  Activity pay compensates teacher advisors for some of the following organizations:  Amnesty Intl, APAC, Art Attack, Black Student Union, Book Club, Creating a World of Difference, FCCLA, FBLA, French Club, Gamers, Gay/Straight Alliance, Hip Hop, Interact, Japanese Culture Club, Jewish Awareness, Knowledge Bowl, Link Crew, Latino Club, Math Club, Mock Trial, Muslim Student Association, Native American Club, Operation Awareness, PALs, Philosophy Club, Progressive Youth of America, Diversity Council, SAFE, Science Olympiad, SERVE, SHAPE, Shutterbugs, Spanish Club, Suicide Prevention, Young Conservatives Club (YCC) .   At Shorewood, such co-curricular activities are an essential aspect of the educational opportunities students can access. The School Board wants to cut pay to advisors, which threatens the existence of such co-curricular opportunities for students. (An ASB club cannot run without a designated faculty advisor)  These proposed cuts directly impact the quality of education students receive in the Shoreline School District

The Deficit  Shoreline teachers and support staff do not dispute that there is a deficit in the District’s budget. What they do dispute is how that deficit should be closed. School Board representatives are pleading poverty. They insist there is simply no other way to close the gap. However, Assistant Superintendent Marsha Harris told the Shoreline Enterprise that the District had “contingency plans” for balancing the budget if a contract agreement cannot be reached. Just what these plans are she would not say.   http://www.enterprisenewspapers.com/index.cfm?action=story&storyid=20078231262591&c=4&s=1  The Bottom Line  Time and time again over the past decade the Shoreline School Board and the Superintendents who answer to it have asked its employee groups to bail it out of financial messes of its own making. Each time employee groups made concessions it was because of District assurances that the crisis would be over. As we all know, such assurances were false.  This summer your teachers and support staff are unwilling to bail the board out after its years of fiscal mismanagement. It’s outrageous and irresponsible for the board to make students and staff members pay the price for its bad budget decisions. The Shoreline School Board has a credibility crisis, as well as a financial one. After at least a decade of revolving-door superintendents, overpaid consultants, and questionable no-bid contracts, we find it difficult to even trust that cuts to educator contracts would result in a balanced budget. And we refuse to support cuts that erode the education of Shoreline Students.   What We Can Do:  Join us tonight at 6:30 P.M. for informational picketing in front of the Shoreline Center. We will then attend the School Board Meeting which begins at 7:30 P.M. It is imperative that the Board hear from our city’s students and parents, as they have already heard from employees on several occasions.  Other Steps:  Also, join your teachers and support staff at Shorewood on Wednesday, August 29th at 3:30 P.M. on the corner of 175th and Aurora for more informational picketing. (Not on Tuesday and Thursday, as previously announced.)  Also, continue to contact the Board and Superintendent.  Shoreline School Board
• President Mike Jacobs, mike.jacobs@shorelineschools.org, 425-776-3191
• Debi Erlichmandebi.ehrlichman@shorelineschools.org, 206-365-6632
• David Wilson, knossosd@verizon.net, 206-546-5177
• Dan Mann, dan.mann@shorelineschools.org, 206-542-3221
• Jim Leigh, jim.leigh@shorelineschools.org, 206-363-2942
   Superintendent Sue Walker, sue.walker@shorelineschools.org, 206-361-4203  Thank you,  David G. Guthrie Shorewood High School

Community Alert

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Dear Shorewood Students and Parents:   I hope this letter finds you relaxed and ready on the eve of another school year. I am excited to begin my 23rd year in the classroom and my thirteenth at Shorewood. Unfortunately, I must talk to you about about a serious threat to a smooth and successful opening of school this year.   The District and its two major employee groups: The Shoreline Education Association (SEA), representing teachers, and the Shoreline Educational Support Personnel Association (SESPA), representing support staff such as secretaries, library assistants etc. are currently in contract negotiations with the Shoreline School Board and Superintendent. Both groups’ contracts expire August 31, 2007.    Contract negotiations are not going well. The District is proposing significant cuts to the teacher and support personnel contracts. The District’s position is that it simply does not have the money to balance the budget, and that the deficit must be made up by cutting its employees’ contracts. This is simply not true, and in a future message to you, I hope to tell you about alternative ways the District can achieve a balanced budget.    In the case of the teachers contract, the District is adding insult to injury by saying that in order to fund the state mandated annual Cost of Living Increase (COLA) for its teachers, it will need to take money out of other areas of our contract in order to pay for our COLAS. Yes, that’s right, Shoreline teachers are being asked to fund their own cost of living increases. (The COLA is not a raise. It simply helps compensation keep up with inflation)    When Will It End?  As I am sure you know, the Shoreline District has been in financial chaos for almost a decade now. This in a community that overwhelmingly passes school levies and taxes itself at a higher rate than surrounding jurisdictions for the express purpose of supporting its schools. With each crisis has come a promise by a school board and superintendent to balance the budget and get us back on track. Again, the latest Board and Superintendent are telling our community that just a few more painful cuts will put us in the black and the crisis will be over. Earlier this year, our community was told that the closing of several schools would balance the budget. Now it’s the pay of those professionals who most directly impact your children’s education. Not only this, The Board and Superintendent have proposed pay cuts in areas that directly affect key programs and services that enhance the education that your children receive. I’ll fill you in on the details of these proposed harmful cuts in a future letter to you.   In past years Shoreline teachers have indeed made contract concessions in order to get us on track. After a decade of financial mismanagement by the Shoreline School District’s School Boards and Superintendents, your teachers are in no mood to make any more concessions. I must also tell you that while the School Board and Superintendent are asking for cuts in teacher and support personnel pay, they are not demonstrating the willingness to reign in spending on expensive new programs.    What Should Be Cut?   Many teachers find it hard to believe that the District is proposing compensation cuts while at the same time it pays millions to distribute and maintain laptop computers for each student. This year computers will be distributed to 5th and 6th graders. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a fan of the student laptops, but when it comes down to teachers and support personnel or machines, I’m going with with the actual people who interact with students on a daily basis.    Also, the School Board and Superintendent refused to accept a teacher proposal to declare a moratorium on other new, expensive programs until the District’s financial house is put in order. In short, the Board and Superintendent have failed to provide a strategic plan for reigning in spending so that our District achieves sustainable financial health. Without such a plan, there is simply no guarantee that we won’t be right back here again next year. And given the experience of the past decade, this is a real possibility.    Enough is Enough  I can tell you that I have never seen my teaching and support colleagues as angry and frustrated as they are now. A decade of broken promises, disastrous superintendent administrations and school boards that have failed to provide proper financial oversight has caused this.    Your Shoreline teachers want nothing more than to do their jobs well and effectively. In my 22 years in the business, I have never worked with a more dedicated, smart and caring group of classroom professionals. The same goes for those employees who support what we do in the classroom.    I also must inform you that if the Board and Superintendent maintain their demand for cuts to professional compensation and student educational programs, I fear there is a very real possibility that your teachers and support personnel will be walking picket lines on the first day of school instead of directing classrooms, libraries and offices. Yes, it’s that serious.   What You Can Do  I conclude by asking for your help. Here are some concrete things that Shoreline parents and students can do to remedy the situation.   1. Contact Superintendent Walker and School Board Members to voice your concern at the current situation and to demand that the budget not be balanced on the backs of teachers, support personnel and consequently the children they serve.   Shoreline School Board
• President Mike Jacobs, mike.jacobs@shorelineschools.org, 425-776-3191
• Debi Erlichmandebi.ehrlichman@shorelineschools.org, 206-365-6632
• David Wilson, knossosd@verizon.net, 206-546-5177
• Dan Mann, dan.mann@shorelineschools.org, 206-542-3221
• Jim Leigh, jim.leigh@shorelineschools.org, 206-363-2942
 
• Superintendent Sue Walker, sue.walker@shorelineschools.org, 206-361-4203
 2. Join teachers and support personnel on Monday, August 27th at 6:30 P.M. for informational picketing in front of the Shoreline Center. No, teachers will not be on strike next week. Walking an informational picket line is simply a way to voice your concern to the School Board and Superintendent. Also, join us at the 7:30 P.M. school board meeting to directly voice your concerns to the Shoreline School Board and Superintendent Walker.   3. Join your Shorewood teachers and support personnel in informational picketing on the corner of 175th and Aurora Avenue at 3:30 P.M on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week.   4. Contact other parents and students about this situation. Feel free to forward this letter if you believe it will assist you in informing others.    5. Watch your inbox. I will contact you soon with more information regarding this crisis.    In closing, please know that your Shoreline teachers and support personnel care deeply about the Shoreline School District and the families it serves. Thank you for helping us to once again make the Shoreline School District a shining beacon of public education in the state of Washington.   Sincerely,     David G. Guthrie Social Studies Department Shorewood High School.    Media Coverage of the Current Crisis:  King 5 TV: http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_082007WAB_shoreline_school_protest_TP.54a8c5cd.html  KIRO Radio: http://sea.bonnint.net/0820davehour2.mp3