Panther Pride

      Springboro, OH: The town I grew up in has been in the news a lot lately in regards to the practices and policies being implemented by its Board of Education. National media outlets have highlighted it decision to bring the possibility of teaching creationism to the table. They continue to have the proposal on the table even after intervention of the ACLU for the infringement upon First Amendment rights. A school board member has stated that he wishes to allow teachers and staff to carry weapons on school grounds. The school board is also anti-levy and has been systematically attempting to take away the teachers union's collective bargaining power and faculty and staff benefits.

      As an alumni of the school, all of this deeply saddens me because the staff within Springboro Schools is a group of outstanding educators who put the children they teach first. These Board members are doing what seems to be everything in their power to make the district a place in which it is unattractive to work. During the recession, the teachers took temporary pay reductions and cuts in benefits, but the continued withholding of these benefits is ultimately what will become a detriment to the students because these quality educators will leave the district in search of better jobs.

      I believe in being an educated member of society, an attribute that I developed during my time as a student in this district. So after all the outcries I have been hearing from my hometown, I decided to take a look at the proposals that the Board of Education and Springboro Education Association are proposing as edits to the current contract. What I found supports the argument that these educators are not asking for anything lavish. In fact, the majority of their demands are for the benefit of their students. Furthermore, from my interpretation of the Board proposals, I found many instances in which the Board is protecting itself and eliminating benefits to not only the educators, but also their students.

Springboro Education Association Proposals

Board of Education Proposals

Here are the highlights from the demands that the SEA is making to the Board of Education:

• they are asking for things that benefit the children they are teaching
• reduced class size
• uniformly disbursed skill level of students
• uniformly disbursed IEPs
• the salary they are asking is actually less than the average cost of living for the area and not excessive
• Cost of Living: Dayton Area
• they are asking for fair evaluations and have an outline for them that is structured to promote student achievement 
• the entirety of their proposals appears to be not only for their protection but also for the protection of their students by attempting to provide them with a quality education
• only excessive request I found was the proposal for one delayed day a week

In contrast, here is what I attained from the Board proposals:

• the board proposals seem to be aimed at protecting their position within the system
• they added a portion in which the union cannot advocate for or against a candidate through the schools to their union members
• they want to eliminate the evaluation system
• want to retain the ability to bring in an employee from outside the school district over employing someone already qualified within it who knows the students
• taking away protections such as family and medical leave
• cutting back on class planning time in the day
• taking away class size caps
• making caps on health insurance coverage that do not take inflation and rising healthcare costs into account
• eliminated all professional development and tuition reimbursement
• there is a new article eliminating collective bargaining for the length of the contract whilst other portions give the board to change parts of the agreement based upon available funds

      When you analyze the sides in this collective bargaining battle, you begin to truly see where each side stands. The educators of this school are notorious for standing up for their students and going above and beyond to see them succeed. The school board is filled with people who have higher aspirations in life that have nothing to do with this school districts.They preach financial responsibility as one of them files for bankruptcy. They do not care about the students in this district; they care about a bottom line and it is transparent in their proposals.

      I personally still have a very large vested interest in the policies and quality of this school district. Not only am I an alumni, but I also still have a sibling at this high school. I want for him the same experience that I got while at Springboro High School. I want him to have the same teachers who greatly influenced who I am today and helped me reach excellent heights in my academic achievement. These people whose benefits the Board is trying to restrict are some of the most influential people in these children's lives. They are also people who care about the kids they are teaching and go to great lengths to see them succeed. The community should be standing behind them and not allowing the Board to ruin this school district by driving them away. This is why I will be changing my voting precinct back to Springboro for the next School Board election. I believe that this community should be putting their children first, because this is a city which people come back to generation after generation to put down roots. These kids are the future of society and they need the quality educators to make sure they are prepared to thrive within it.

Petition Against Springboro School Board