- April 23, 2024
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+ Unions serve important purpose in Flagler schools, community
Dear Editor:
I am a mother of two, a teacher, and the president of the Flagler County Educators Association. Recently, the Palm Coast Observer has published a number of letters to the editor that have missed the mark on a number of key points, and are therefore sharing half-truths. As a teacher, I believe knowledge is powerful. Please let me help to educate you on the rest of the story.
A recent letter mentioned the three things that a union is “good for,” and frankly, only a person who has never been a blue-collar worker where a union was involved would incorrectly assert those three “purposes.” While unions do not keep “incompetent” workers from being fired, unions do work to ensure that every member has due process. Here in Flagler County, the teachers union has played an active role in the creation and implementation of Teacher Success Plans. These plans are used to assist teachers who are struggling and to help them improve for the benefit of our students.
Unions negotiate salaries with management. Any increase that we agree to at the bargaining table must be approved by both the teachers and the School Board, and subsequently is given to all teachers, not just a select few, or just to “those who don’t deserve it.”
Furthermore, the School Board recently unanimously approved the agreement for salaries. Think big picture: The School Board employs nearly 1,700. It’s the second largest employer in Flagler County. We support the local economy, help keep small businesses in business, and help ensure that many other workers keep their jobs — simply because we spend our hard-earned money in Flagler County. Suggesting that teachers and educational professionals don’t deserve the raises that the School Board agrees to hurts not just our families, but also many more families throughout Flagler County.
As to the letter’s last claim to the “purpose of a union,” I have but one simple comment. With Republicans being quoted as intending to raise and spend $1 billion (yes, with a “B”) on the 2012 elections, I’m not sure that he should be pointing any fingers.
At the end of the day, I am proud to be a teacher and union member. I know that I work hard to better the lives of my students, both in my role as teacher and as union president. I will continue to stand side-by-side with the other hard-working teachers and education professionals in Flagler County, my fellow union members, to continue to work to provide great public schools for every child in Flagler County.
Katie Hansen
FCEA President
+ ‘Unsatisfactory’ teachers should not be protected by School Board
Dear Editor:
I am pleased to respond to Ms. Conklin’s recent opinion piece. I find it disappointing that a public servant charged with encouraging excellence in our school system would say at a public board meeting, “In our family we regard FCAT as a swear word.” I will leave it to the voters to determine whether that was a responsible remark.
I would also point out that Ms. Conklin enjoys the endorsement of the Flagler County Educators Association. Our state has established a new system to evaluate our teachers this fall. However, the FCEA strenuously objected to having any teacher designated as “unsatisfactory” – the harshest of the ratings. So, the school administration backed down and agreed.
The new regulations require two years of “unsatisfactory” ratings before any steps can be taken to remove those teachers who truly do not deserve to be in our county’s classrooms. Bottom line: Since the designation of “unsatisfactory” cannot be applied to any teacher during this coming school year, it will take at least three years before incompetent teachers can be dismissed.
I wonder how any of our parents will feel once they discover that their child had been assigned to spend any part of the next three years in a classroom with a teacher who truly doesn’t deserve to be employed anywhere in our Flagler school system.
Deborah B. Laury
Candidate for District Seat 3
Flagler County School Board
+ New administration position is a luxury we can’t afford
Dear Editor:
So, let me get this straight: The position of assistant superintendent — a title which Janet Valentine had eliminated years earlier — is being resurrected (undoubtedly at taxpayers’ expense) so that she herself may take time (again, presumably at taxpayers’ expense) to tend to personal affairs owing to her daughter’s thoroughly reckless intransigence? We should all be so lucky!
In the face of high unemployment, looming tax hikes, an avalanche of foreclosures, and ever-increasing costs for the most basic of necessities, struggling county residents need not be made subject to the added and unnecessary expense of a discarded management title — in addition to that of an absent public schools chief administrator — so that the life-threatening vagrancies of an alleged substance abuser and the pertinent concerns of her family can be addressed at leisure.
According to School Board Chairwoman Sue Dickinson, “We just need to bite the bullet.” But I disagree. It is Janet Valentine who needs to “bite the bullet.”
Evelio Reyes
Palm Coast
