Dear ACSD 6th-Grade Teachers,
I see you and appreciate you. I’ve had the pleasure to work with many of you, and I want you to know that I can’t imagine the present you face as you stare at such an uncertain future for next year and years to come.
You have been told you won’t teach 6th grade next year. You’ve been told that MUMS won’t make room for additional classroom teachers as it welcomes 6th-grade students next year, for the first time.
You might hold on to your jobs because of your seniority in the district. If you do, that might mean changing schools and bumping a teacher of a younger grade out of a job at a school you don’t know because they have less seniority than you. And, if that happens, you’ll be teaching a new grade altogether. The position you’ve been forced into is untenable for anyone with a beating heart. It’s not your fault. We care about you, and this is not OK.
And, if you are forced to do this and end up at any of three or four schools in the district next year, you also know that the same district is sharpening its plan to close those very schools the following year. So, you’d be forced to, if you have seniority, move again and bump someone out of a job, again. You’d be asked to restart, again.
I know this is the space you’ve been put into for no fault of your own.
I see you. My heart beats for you and breaks for you. If I can do anything for you, please reach out.
Love,
Tim
Tim O’Leary
Ripton