teachers

With its most recent update, Google Classroom removed the to-do list feature from its homepage. Unfortunately, this was a feature used by many students to manage their work and prioritize the order in which this work was done, showing all of the assignments that hadn't been completed in order of due date, allowing students to see what homework was due and when. The only option now is to go to the "classwork" section of google classroom on each individual class, wasting valuable work time. This change has impacted school life and organization for many students, and so it should be added back into the system. Google Classroom is an amazing tool for students, and adding the to-do list back will make it an even greater asset. Spread the word!!

In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that Washington State was not meeting its constitutional mandate to fund its public education system. This was McCleary vs. Washington. As a result, the state legislature allocated $7.3 billion to schools over a four year period and this year, an additional $1 billion SPECIFICALLY for teacher’s salaries. Evergreen School District has refused to work with the teachers union to negotiate new salaries based on the increased funds specified for this purpose. After several failed Union/District meetings, with the district offering nothing and public outcry, the district offered a 7.7% increase in wage. However this offer was tied to increased work days and teachers taking on additional class periods. After calculating the additional workload, along with an already contracted increase and cost of living increase, Evergreen Districts offer turned out to be a measly 0.8%.Evergreen Schools educators voted to strike on 8/23, with a staggering 96% in favor of. No teacher wants to be on strike. They want to be in the classrooms, teaching our children. But they need support to do so. Educators have long faced stagnant wages with ever increasing educational requirements. They are not asking for a raise, but simply to be paid at market value. There is an growing educator shortage. We don’t want to lose our great teachers because they cant afford to work in our state! The quality of our children’s education will see the effect if this happens. Better pay for teachers = More qualified teachers = Better education for our children. It’s that simple. Evergreen School District has approx. 26,000 students and is the 5th largest district in the state.Evergreen School District has failed to offer competitive pay to educators despite the large increase to the budget. I have three children in the district, and as parents, we want to keep qualified, supportive, and educated teachers in our children’s classrooms. My children’s teachers are an invaluable part of their lives. How can we expect educators to support our children when they are not being supported themselves? As parents, we should be demanding teachers be supported financially, mentally, and emotionally. They hold our children’s future in their hands.Contact the Evergreen Public Schools Board of Directors to voice your outrage at their inaction; Julie Bocanegra (360-910-5175), Victoria Bradford (360-896-1327), Rob Perkins (360-450-3937), Todd Yuzuriha (360-524-2224), and Ginny Gronwoldt (971-998-7473). You can also reach them by email at board.directors@evergreenps.org. John Steach, Evergreen Superintendent, can be emailed at john.steach@evergreenps.org. Another option to let our support of our teachers known is to submit letters to the editor of the Columbian. You can do so on their website at http://columbian.com/lettertotheeditor/ , email your letters to letters@columbian.com , fax to 360-735-4598, or mail your letters to Letters from Readers, The Columbian P.O. Box 180 Vancouver, WA 98666.Please sign this petition to show Evergreen School District that as parents and community members, WE STAND WITH OUR EDUCATORS! We demand that they be fairly compensated. For them. For our children. For our future. These are our tax dollars. Let’s make them work for our children and for the educators working with them…not the bureaucrats.

As reported by The New York Times, education secretary Besty DeVos is considering awarding federally funded grants to buy guns for schoolteachers as a way to prevent school shootings. DeVos’ plan represents a radical shift in education policy that for years has taken the position that the federal government should not fund weapons procurement for schools. It ignores Congressional mandates that expressly prohibit using federal taxpayer dollars to buy guns. In a cynical ploy to circumvent the prohibition of funding school weapons purchases, DeVos is contemplating raiding the Student Support and Academic Enrichment program to buy guns. Arming teachers is not the way to support students or enrich their academic experience.  Arming teachers is a misguided policy that substitutes NRA rhetoric about “good guys with guns" for rational solutions to prevent gun violence in schools. Educational advocacy organizations, law enforcement experts, parents and teachers themselves roundly oppose the strategy of turning educators into armed security guards. In a statement released after President Trump floated the idea of arming teachers in response to the Parkland school shooting, the National Association of School Resource Officers “strongly recommends that no firearms be on a school campus except those carried by carefully selected, specially trained school resource officers.” Former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said arming teachers to prevent school shootings is “the height of lunacy.” Rick Myers, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association said he would be “hard-pressed to find someone in policing who thinks it's a good idea to arm teachers.” As Debra Ciamacca, a Marine Corps officer turned high school teacher explained, “Guns have no place in the classroom” because teachers will never have the training to make the split second decisions needed in active shooter situations. Furthermore, “weapons are not conducive to the teacher/student relationship.” Even among trained police officers, shooting accuracy is shockingly low. A 2008 Rand Corporation study of New York City police reported an average hit rate of just 18 percent. That's one reason why Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Educational Association, calls the idea of arming teachers “ill-conceived, preposterous, and dangerous.” In her letter to President Trump, Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.7 million member American Federation of Teachers wrote, “The response we have heard is universal, most notably from educators who are gun owners, military veterans and National Rifle Association members: Teachers don’t want to be armed; we want to teach.” In a recent survey conducted by the NEA, 82 percent of their members said they would not carry a gun in school. Two-thirds of educators who own guns would not consider carrying a firearm on school property, and two-thirds also said they would feel less safe with armed teachers in their school. The voices of those who know best overwhelmingly oppose arming teachers. Tell Besty DeVos to listen to them and drop all considerations of using taxpayer funds to arm educators. (Poster Credit: BBDO Atlanta/Ad Age)

After all the school shootings that have happened in the last ten years, we do not need guns in schools! It only takes one mentally unstable teacher or student to shoot more students. The answer to ending school shootings is not to give teachers shooting machines.  Guns will create a dangerous environment for everyone in schools would boost the number of school shootings higher than ever before. I am a student and I sure wouldn't want to go to school if my teachers had guns.  Sign the petition to join us in stopping the Trump Administration from funding gun purchases for teachers! Text @GUNFREE to 810-10 to subscribe to text message updates. Message and data rates may apply. Must be above 12 years old to join. www.oursafenation.org