For years the Marysville School District has been a joke in the state amongst administrators because of interactions between the school board, superintendent, administrators and the unions. At a state conference several years ago, a recently hired Marysville superintendent was introduced as the newest candidate for “former superintendent of Marysville.”
As a result of this past acrimony between the school board, superintendent, administrators and the unions, our superintendent’s office has been a revolving door. For the past two years we have had a school board united in support of our superintendent and not in micro-managing the superintendent. With this new-found spirit of cooperation between the school board and the superintendent, our goal was to refocus our resources within the district toward student achievement.
How do we decide how much money to pay our teachers? Most school districts strive to strike a balance between teachers’ pay and student programs. Our teachers’ union elevated our teachers’ salaries to some of the highest paid teachers in the state, while all this time not meeting expectations for better student performance.
In Marysville, the unions funded the three new school board members with more than $5,500 of union money to help them get elected. This kind of funding does not indicate grassroots support. This kind of funding represents special interest groups, and this money was used quite effectively to sway public opinion. Since we have a new school board whose campaigns were funded by union money and union support, can we expect them to be objective in negotiating pending union contracts?
If I am being recalled because I have stood up for what is best for students – bring it on!
Marysville
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