Public Comments Regarding Proposed Budget Reductions: March 9, 2022

At the March 9, 2022 Board of Education meeting, UFEA president Lindsey Dickinson shared the following comments with the board and administration on behalf of UFEA:

My comments tonight are on behalf of the nearly 1,000 educators in the district I have the pleasure and privilege of representing as president of the Unit Five Education Association — including teachers, social workers, nurses, psychologists, SLPs, and counselors.

We understand that budget cuts, reductions in force, and involuntary transfers like those before you this evening are difficult decisions to make.

We understand nobody desires to make those kinds of decisions.

We also understand the district is dealing with years of budget deficits and funding shortfalls.

While we understand the position you are in, we can’t recommend cutting the positions of any of our members or the programs that benefit our students.

We believe the work all of our members do is important.

In fact, we believe our students need more staff supporting them, not fewer.

Over the past decade:

We’ve bargained contracts that provided minimal increases in pay and benefits in hopes of protecting people and programs.

We’ve done more with less in order to provide the excellent education our students deserve and the community expects.

We’ve explicitly expressed our willingness to support the district in any efforts to increase revenue — including lobbying state leaders for adequate funding and seeking community support.

We’ve done all we can — often with too few staff and supports, and too little compensation.

We all feel the results of inadequate state funding and insufficient local revenue. Cuts will be felt by the entire community.

But none will feel it more than our students.

We will continue to do all we can. And we continue to be committed to supporting the district’s efforts to seek additional revenue rather than cut positions, people and programs. It’s been true every time we’ve said it to you over the past several years. And it’s true today.

We believe this community supports our schools, our staff and our students. We are confident that, given the opportunity, this community will step up and show that support.

Because, while educating the students of Unit 5 is our job, providing the education our students deserve is a community responsibility.