Submitted for your review and published by permission of the author.
Open Letter
To the
Maine Township School District #207
To the
Maine Township School District #207
Saturday, January 30, 2010
I have just received my "Maine East - Call to Action" flyer*. Being the good citizen that I am, I decided to take the teachers union up on its call.
Attached is a copy of a four-year teacher and administrator study for our district. The data was sourced at Champion News.net. They received the data from the Illinois Board of Education. Over the years I’ve found the Illinois State Board of Education to be an accurate source, as their data is originally sourced from the district itself.
On Monday night this board will feel pressured to give in to union demands for full funding, including higher pay. As you will see, the attached report clearly shows an outrageously high growth rate for teacher and administrator payments since 2005.
I recognize from experience that most teachers and administrators are not business people and that most have never held a long-term full-time job outside of the school system. I also recognize that since coming to District 207, the majority of teachers or administrators have seldom had to worry about where their next paycheck was coming from or whether or not they would have a job tomorrow. District 207 teachers and administrators have good high paying jobs including three months off for vacation.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for most of the people paying their bill. One need only read the paper to see how the present economic realities have affected taxpayers within this district. Further, there are many District 207 taxpayers who rely on Social Security for their income. They cannot afford to pay more.
We cannot afford to pay more!
The Teachers Union is demanding that our representatives on the board dip into the district’s “rainy day fund” to achieve their goal. The district is already doing so! One can only imagine, how in just a few additional years of “dipping”, there might eventually be no “rainy day fund” dollars for future boards to “dip” into. Of course, the teachers union will tell us that the district can always count on taxpayers to fork up the additional money via a referendum, as neighbor districts have in the past few years.
I urge you to look at the report in its entirety. It is, as one of your own members put it, devastating.
Best regards,
Kenneth Butterly, Taxpayer
* Maine South flyer and Maine West flyer -- and no "union bug" anywhere! Tsk! Tsk!
I have just received my "Maine East - Call to Action" flyer*. Being the good citizen that I am, I decided to take the teachers union up on its call.
Attached is a copy of a four-year teacher and administrator study for our district. The data was sourced at Champion News.net. They received the data from the Illinois Board of Education. Over the years I’ve found the Illinois State Board of Education to be an accurate source, as their data is originally sourced from the district itself.
On Monday night this board will feel pressured to give in to union demands for full funding, including higher pay. As you will see, the attached report clearly shows an outrageously high growth rate for teacher and administrator payments since 2005.
I recognize from experience that most teachers and administrators are not business people and that most have never held a long-term full-time job outside of the school system. I also recognize that since coming to District 207, the majority of teachers or administrators have seldom had to worry about where their next paycheck was coming from or whether or not they would have a job tomorrow. District 207 teachers and administrators have good high paying jobs including three months off for vacation.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for most of the people paying their bill. One need only read the paper to see how the present economic realities have affected taxpayers within this district. Further, there are many District 207 taxpayers who rely on Social Security for their income. They cannot afford to pay more.
We cannot afford to pay more!
The Teachers Union is demanding that our representatives on the board dip into the district’s “rainy day fund” to achieve their goal. The district is already doing so! One can only imagine, how in just a few additional years of “dipping”, there might eventually be no “rainy day fund” dollars for future boards to “dip” into. Of course, the teachers union will tell us that the district can always count on taxpayers to fork up the additional money via a referendum, as neighbor districts have in the past few years.
I urge you to look at the report in its entirety. It is, as one of your own members put it, devastating.
Best regards,
Kenneth Butterly, Taxpayer
* Maine South flyer and Maine West flyer -- and no "union bug" anywhere! Tsk! Tsk!
12 comments:
Hey great catch!!!
Where is the "union bug" on these flyers? I've worked for union printers. No self respecting union person would be caught dead distributing flyers or even have their name associated with any flyer that did not carry a union bug. WTF????
Yeah they are all about the union alright. Their union.
It's interesting that the last bullet point on the flyers is
"The first option should not be terminating teachers who students trust most."
If I'm not mistaken, those would be the non-tenured, newer teachers. The ones who still enjoy their jobs and bring enthusiasm to the classroom as opposed to the older, tenured teachers who in many cases are just phoning it in.
Let's get rid of the tenure system. Where else are you guaranteed a job for life no matter whether you do it well or not?
Anon 8:59 - completely agree. It's unfortunate that the "least effective" teachers can't be termed first. I can list several I'd put on that list so we could keep some of the newer, more interested ones.
Don't you think teachers should know the difference between less and fewer? Especially when they use the proper word later in the same bullet point?
They probably didn't use a union printer. Put a union label on something and you pay double or triple!
My thanks to Mr. Butterly for his essay and the report. I can't believe the percentage increases! Unreal!
If the district keeps up those kinds of increases and keeps using the "rainy day fund" I too think the district will be out of money in no time at all.
Call me a coward, but I would not show up to a meeting to stand up and speak out against the teachers.
Anon@11:22 --
O.k., we'll call you a coward. But we understand your reluctance and assume you have one or more kids in the district.
We would like to point out, there are plenty of people who do not have kids in the district and so they should have no fear of the possibility of retribution.
Yes, I think the postings here are an accurate sample of public sentiment. However they go pretty much unnoticed when compared to the stage shows put on the unions. They can’t use animals, but they sure got the kids trained well. One on one phone calls and emails are nice, but do they impact a reporter at all? I think most of the board wants to do the right thing, but it’s hard when a thousand people are screaming at how wrong you are and nobody is there to say you are right.
This is everyone’s opportunity to make a difference. Show up tonight and let the board know that you have had enough. It will make a difference.
11:57:
Do you have kids???? Kids trained like animals - lovely!!! If that is the way you really feel that is VERY sad!! If that is the way people think no wonder some were afraid to let the students hear Obama speak!!
A little googlin would indicate that Mr. Butterly is somewhat of an activest on this subject matter. He was going to run for the District 63 board but his name was removed for invalid signatures. He also ran a blog at one time. Interesting stuff!!
Good for Mr. Butterly and THANK YOU too!
I am sooooo sick of hearing about how teachers care so much for our children. The harsh reality is teachers pay dues, and when they have to decide between the kids & themselves, they're going to side with the Union every time.
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