Letter to the Superintendent, Sept 18, 2014
Dr. Thomas Manning~
I just wanted to take a moment to give one last plea before you meet with our teachers today. I am writing you as a Reynoldsburg resident, a Reynoldsburg mom, a Reynoldsburg graduate, and a Reynoldsburg teacher that left the district this past summer. Before I try to explain why I left this district, I really need you to know why I came here in the first place. Put simply…..I love it here. I love living here, being a Reynoldsburg alumni, raising my children here, and calling the ‘Burg home. For all those reasons, I wanted to teach here. I wanted to be able to work with the kids that I shared the community with. I learned quickly that even though the grass may look greener on the other side, you can bet the water bill is higher.
Dr. Thomas Manning~
I just wanted to take a moment to give one last plea before you meet with our teachers today. I am writing you as a Reynoldsburg resident, a Reynoldsburg mom, a Reynoldsburg graduate, and a Reynoldsburg teacher that left the district this past summer. Before I try to explain why I left this district, I really need you to know why I came here in the first place. Put simply…..I love it here. I love living here, being a Reynoldsburg alumni, raising my children here, and calling the ‘Burg home. For all those reasons, I wanted to teach here. I wanted to be able to work with the kids that I shared the community with. I learned quickly that even though the grass may look greener on the other side, you can bet the water bill is higher.
Within the first couple weeks of being a RCSD teacher, I feared I had made a mistake by leaving my previous district. I was immediately overwhelmed and stunned by the teacher work day. At my previous school (Grove City High School), we were capped at 30 students per class with a maximum of 150 students per day. That was very reasonable. However, please keep in mind that we were provided a full class period for planning, a full period for a lunch, and we were also assigned one duty. So out of 8 periods, I taught for 5. At Reynoldsburg, I taught one single block and 3 double blocked classes in addition to a Fusion class, which would be equivalent to 7 teaching periods and a duty (that was also considered a prep). I was given exactly 30 minutes for lunch (which I did choose to spend helping my kids). By the time the school day had ended (where my planning period was cleverly disguised) I found myself still helping kids…..because that’s what teachers do. We bend over backwards to give our kids what they need. Also there was no other time in the day to help many of my students. So I would spend (and please know that I am not exaggerating) roughly 4 more hours of work at home each night…..planning, grading, and searching for new and innovative ideas to make math fun (no easy task, I assure you). I was returning parent emails at midnight on some evenings because I just couldn’t get things done.
Please know that teacher morale was at an all-time low even BEFORE contract negotiations came into play. I’m sure teacher lounges across the nation are full of complainers on any given day. But this was different. Teachers were beat down……worn out……fed-up…..and tired of being taken advantage of. Please hear this: I NEVER heard a fellow colleague say they needed to find another job so they could make more money. I heard more teachers than I can count say they would take a pay cut just to get out of our school district. So many of your teachers have multiple years of experience in our district, which makes it incredibly hard to leave. If that wasn’t the case, I assure you that your teacher turnover would be even more devastating. And this was not just at my building….these sentiments were shared with me from teachers all over our district. I would love to tell you more, but I am trying to be quick. Someday I would like to be able to share with you all the reasons I gladly gave up my “dream job” to go somewhere else.
I do not believe this will be an easy fix for you. I do not think our teachers trust either you or our board. Forgive me if I sound harsh. It was abundantly clear to me in my one year of duty here that teachers were not a priority. This district did not care how I reached their exceedingly high expectations, they just expected me to do it. People argue all the time over whether a school should be treated/run as a business. Coming from a business background myself….I definitely see the similarities. But there is one glaring issue that cannot be overlooked, and that is how a business treats their employees. These teachers are your employees. There should be no doubt that they deserve to be treated fairly and with respect. Take care of them. Inspire them. Support them. Motivate them. Energize them so they can in turn take it back to the classroom. I have no idea how you begin to write respect into a contract. But when you meet with our teachers today, can you at least acknowledge that yes……our system is broken. Something has gone really wrong over the years here in Reynoldsburg. I believe that as soon as you open up that dialogue, you begin to make progress. I am praying that the healing process begins today. Please fight for our teachers.
From one Reynoldsburg mom to another, thanks for listening. Praying for you all today.
Sincerely~
Jenelle Leppla
Please know that teacher morale was at an all-time low even BEFORE contract negotiations came into play. I’m sure teacher lounges across the nation are full of complainers on any given day. But this was different. Teachers were beat down……worn out……fed-up…..and tired of being taken advantage of. Please hear this: I NEVER heard a fellow colleague say they needed to find another job so they could make more money. I heard more teachers than I can count say they would take a pay cut just to get out of our school district. So many of your teachers have multiple years of experience in our district, which makes it incredibly hard to leave. If that wasn’t the case, I assure you that your teacher turnover would be even more devastating. And this was not just at my building….these sentiments were shared with me from teachers all over our district. I would love to tell you more, but I am trying to be quick. Someday I would like to be able to share with you all the reasons I gladly gave up my “dream job” to go somewhere else.
I do not believe this will be an easy fix for you. I do not think our teachers trust either you or our board. Forgive me if I sound harsh. It was abundantly clear to me in my one year of duty here that teachers were not a priority. This district did not care how I reached their exceedingly high expectations, they just expected me to do it. People argue all the time over whether a school should be treated/run as a business. Coming from a business background myself….I definitely see the similarities. But there is one glaring issue that cannot be overlooked, and that is how a business treats their employees. These teachers are your employees. There should be no doubt that they deserve to be treated fairly and with respect. Take care of them. Inspire them. Support them. Motivate them. Energize them so they can in turn take it back to the classroom. I have no idea how you begin to write respect into a contract. But when you meet with our teachers today, can you at least acknowledge that yes……our system is broken. Something has gone really wrong over the years here in Reynoldsburg. I believe that as soon as you open up that dialogue, you begin to make progress. I am praying that the healing process begins today. Please fight for our teachers.
From one Reynoldsburg mom to another, thanks for listening. Praying for you all today.
Sincerely~
Jenelle Leppla