Like many of you, when our jobs took us to Shelby County, we chose to pay higher property taxes in Collierville because of the great educational opportunities it provided to our children. As Collierville residents, we have multiple school buildings, including the old school building on Poplar Avenue which is not even being used. Each school building has a gym and cafeteria which could be used as large classrooms to allow even more students to learn 6 ft apart. Despite this fact, Collierville School District’s “so-called” leadership has not even disclosed how many students it could safely educate per the Shelby County Health Department’s guidelines. They have not disclosed how many parents chose in school learning versus virtual learning. They did not even offer a solution providing full time in school learning for a single student.  Instead, they caved to the minority and chosen not to even provide a true “in school” learning option period. Our neighboring Shelby County city (Germantown) provides a model which allows the parents of younger children a full time option, while our school board and superintendent put the lions share of teaching our children on the taxpayers. 

If you won’t sign this petition for yourself or your children, please sign for the teachers and counselors worried about their job as it takes fewer to manage a virtual school. Sign for the custodian, bus driver, and cafeteria worker who may lose their job. Sign for the parent of a special needs child who needs full time attention. Sign for the single parent forced to choose between putting food on the table or teaching their child. Sign for the two income family without the ability to work from home, who is about to decide who will quit their job to teach their child. Sign for the working professional paying $10,000 or $20,000 in property taxes who just inherited another bill-hiring someone to teach their child. If none of those individuals persuade you to sign this petition, sign for the child who relies solely on teachers for any sense of stability in their life.

We are forced to pay 100% of our property taxes, but are only offered 40% of our children’s “in school” learning. This decision makes life harder on many income levels and we deserve better!