Retain experienced teachers! Teachers need a contract!

By John R. Ackland

The highest quality teaching staff should be recruited and retained. It is a problem when 36% of the teachers in one school asked for transfers or left the district. Teachers deserve an employment contract!

Teachers are the curriculum "experts"! Provide them a greater voice in selecting teaching materials, setting schedules, and having the necessary training and assistance to help each child succeed and reach their potential.

Teachers, students, and parents produce high test scores and Blue Ribbon schools.

The school and district administrative role is to serve as facilitators so that teachers have the materials and the motivation to do the best possible job. Administrators are to recruit and retain the highest quality of teaching staff. Administrators need to utilize teacher input in curriculum, methodology, and organizational decisions as the implementers of the educational process.

The teachers need and deserve a contract so there is consistency in the administration of the schools and the district. The teachers' rights and responsibilities need to be spelled out.

The Rosedale Elementary School District has a new superintnedent and assistant superintendent. If parents, teachers, and the community feel new policies are needed, now is the best time for that change. I think some existing policies need to change.

I wish to represent the educator on the board. To emphasize this point I quote former president of the Unites States: Dwight David Eisenhower -

"In all our efforts for education--we must never lose sight of the very heart of education: good teaching itself. Good teachers do not just happen, they are the product of the highest of personal motivation."

The public needs to support its teachers. Teachers need a contract.