A LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM JESSICA DIECKMAN ON THE SCHOOL DISTRICT'S VERSION OF EQUITY, THE TEACHER'S AIDES, AND A SEGUE INTO AIR CONDITIONING ISSUES TOO

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A LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM JESSICA DIECKMAN ON THE SCHOOL DISTRICT'S VERSION OF EQUITY, THE TEACHER'S AIDES, AND A SEGUE INTO AIR CONDITIONING ISSUES TOO

To the CHUFSD BOE and Administrators,

It’s pretty unbelievable for a district that prides itself on being fair, and discusses equity seemingly non-stop, that you still haven’t given the teacher aides and cafeteria employees better salaries, summer unemployment benefits, paid lunches and health benefits. 

What message are you sending to them and the community by doing this? That they are not vital employees, not important enough while working with our children and are merely second class citizens in our schools? The salaries and benefits for our top administrators exceed a quarter of a million dollars per person. There is no reason our teacher aides and cafeteria employees should be doing the dedicated day-in and day-out work they are doing without fair pay and benefits. I know some of these people personally and I can honestly say the pay they are given is on the scale of a McDonalds employee. How embarrassing!

I see we are spending tons of money on a turf field and making classrooms into learning spaces that look like they are out of an Ikea catalog. How about we prioritize taking better care of the people who see and work with our kids every day? They make a huge difference in the lives of the students and deserve to be treated fairly. Do they not? That’s not too much to ask in my estimation. I look forward to seeing some changes on this soon, changes that benefit the teachers aides.

 As a side note, why is there still no air conditioning in the Kindergarten wing at CET and in many of our other classrooms throughout the district, as well as our kitchens in the schools?       The Kindergarten wing and food preparation areas were literally ovens the last few weeks of the school year. Temperatures were easily above 100 degrees. This has been going on since well before 2020. Time to fix this, because these spaces are not safe places for learning or working in.

Jessica Dieckman