Hard-working teachers appreciated

As two recently retired teachers with over 50 years combined experience in the Whitefish School District, we thought it only fair to respond to recent comments made by Trustee Shawn Tucker and the “love it or leave it” ultimatum to teachers from Richard Atkinson in the April 9 issue of the Pilot.

Apparently, Mr. Tucker thinks that teachers, who depend on a living wage to support their families, should have held hands and sung Kumbaya with trustees and administrators when salaries were negotiated. Gee, Shawn, the last we heard it was the trustees’ objective to keep salary increases as low as possible.

Teachers depend on salary increases to keep up with the increased cost of food, clothing, gas, utilities, medical care and their children’s college educations. That’s assuming the cost of their housing hasn’t gone up every year. It should be obvious to anyone who’s paying attention that when it comes to salary negotiations those interests are antagonistic.

Maybe your concerns could have been better addressed if the superintendent had been involved in negotiations instead of the board’s hired lawyer who had no interest in bringing the two parties together.

Mr. Atkinson is apparently annoyed because of the frustration and anger expressed by a few teachers in an anonymous survey they assumed was for in house purposes. But his response might as well be, “Let them eat cake.”

While some of the comments were regrettable, especially when they were unexpectedly published, the frustration of people who feel their work and dedication is unrecognized and underappreciated is understandable.

In the last 10 years teachers’ salaries have been basically stagnant. The cost of living in Whitefish has not been. The cost of teachers’ health care has increased. Their ability to pay for it has not. The cost of their continuing education has increased. Resources at the schools have been reduced. Demands on teachers above and beyond the education of our youth have greatly increased.

The teachers we’ve worked with forge on because they love their work and their students. They take real pride in providing a top level education to the children of this community.

Teaching can be mentally, physically and emotionally demanding. It would be hard to find any teacher who puts in an eight-hour day. They take their work home at night. They go in to prepare on weekends. They counsel kids who sometimes have no support at home, and occasionally spend money out of their own pockets to make up for resources they no longer have.

Mr. Atkinson, we don’t know what you do for a living, but it couldn’t be any more challenging or worthwhile than what the hardworking teachers of Whitefish do every day. We are proud of the top level education provided in our public schools.

By the way, “love or leave it” is so 60s! Then, it was directed at people like Martin Luther King Jr., women who demanded equal opportunities, and those who felt we ought to start thinking about a sustainable earth. Now, the invective is thrown at teachers who think they have a right to a wage on which they can live. According to you, teachers are in pretty good company.

— Carol Trieweiler and Benilda Delgado