Hopwood, funding, and teachers

I was first informed of the problems at Hopwood Junior High School several months ago and I instructed the teachers who approached me to write up their concerns and I would present them directly to the Board of Education and Public School System administration. However, I never received any formal letter from the teachers. It is incidents like this that illuminate and justify the necessity for the BOE Teacher Representative to communicate with teachers and play an active part in all issues related to teachers, so small problems won’t become a mountain of problems, like we now see at Hopwood. In the medical field its known as “preventive medicine.”

Teachers do have means for resolving their concerns through their Teacher Representative on the Board and some of the problems at Hopwood are indeed “funding related” as stated by Dr. Borja. We are having some of the same problems with funding at Kagman High because teachers have to supply their own copy paper and other materials for students. Had the House of Representatives did right by the teacher and divided the unclaimed lottery funds between the present teachers at PSS and the future teachers in the scholarship program, most of the funding problems with teachers at Hopwood would never come about. But hopefully the Senate won’t have tunnel vision and exercise more wisdom by appropriately dividing the money when House Bill 14-223 goes to the upper house.

The allegations of discrimination and racism are surely federal violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, should they prove true. However, since teachers did not present their concerns to me for assistance like they should have, I have requested the BOE chairman for my inclusion in the resolution of this matter to try and help the teachers and administration reach the most amicable solution possible for everyone involved. It is a known fact that teachers as a whole are fearful of reprisals and do not trust the top officials in our Education Department to deal out justice in matters like this. That’s why they are getting lawyers. The average person can see the teachers’ position when one administrator is designated to pass judgment on another administrator and teachers have no power or representation. Not that the appointed administrator is going to be biased but it is the appearance, the potential for bias, that must be totally eliminated if PSS wants teachers to totally buy into the resolution proposed.

I don’t know what the end result of the problems will be at Hopwood, but I told you so: All teachers need to work with their school representative to establish their bargaining rights, which will empower them as part of the accountability system within PSS. Accountability should flow through the system in both directions: from the top down and from the bottom up. I can guarantee that complete accountability will definitely improve the entire system. But my earlier prediction was trashed because I told everyone who reads the paper that the transition to empower teachers can be smooth if teachers and education officials worked with the Teacher Rep. but things will eventually get ugly should they continue to avoid the inevitability of recognizing teachers’ rights. Now look at what is taking place at Hopwood. There is another school approaching the boiling point. These problems can be neutralized in the early stages if teachers and education officials would utilize the Teacher Rep. as intended by the Constitution. The framers of the Constitution realized the importance of having a Teacher Rep. and maybe one day teachers and the administration will realize the importance of having a BOE Teacher Rep. I wish the teachers and the administrator in question at Hopwood good luck for the sake of our children who are caught in the cross fire. All teachers, one direction.

Ambrose M. Bennett
BOE Teacher Rep.