Wants teachers, school district to reach agreement

Disgusted. That's how I feel when I think about what we pay our Pleasant Valley School District teachers, and in particular how much we make them pay into their own health benefits.

As a mother of a fourthgrader and a preschooler, it pained me last year when the district made the controversial closures of some of our precious schools. This bitter pill and community divisiveness was easier to swallow when I thought, "Well, at least these hardworking teachers will get their deserved raises and be brought to parity with other school districts within our county."

Wrong. The teachers are still not adequately compensated and their medical benefits are still woefully below other school districts in the county.

Our children are with these teachers six hours every day. I home-schooled my son for a short period, and I know firsthand how difficult and challenging teaching is. Our teachers are faced with more challenges now than even 10 years ago.

The teachers are stressed with the constant emphasis on testing with the legislature of No Child Left Behind. They still, somehow, manage to engage students with their own creative ideas and projects that require critical thinking and writing that is so important in later education.

The Pleasant Valley School Board and the newly hired superintendent need to resolve this impasse as soon as possible so our teachers can get back to the business of the students in the classroom.

The letter that was sent out by the district on Dec. 12 was ended by twice stating that teachers are a top priority. Maybe if they made our children a top priority, by paying teachers the salary and medical benefits they deserve, the school board wouldn't have so many families leaving the Pleasant Valley School District.

The new CAPE charter school and other educational options will continue to attract more students to their schools, and PVSD will continue to struggle with lower enrollment.

Keep the experienced teachers and lure new teachers to the district with competitive salaries, or the domino effect of declining resources will bring funding down even further. Keeping standards high starts by paying our teachers fairly. Yvette Garcia Camarillo