School Board Plans to Invite Legislators to the District

The Greendale School Board said on Monday night that they plan to invite legislators, State Senator Mary Lazich and State Rep. Jeff Stone, to the school district when they are not session and everything slows down at the Capitol.

School board president Tom Slota said that "education is not high in their radar and is not an item of things they are interested in."

Superintendent William Hughes said it would probably be in the legislators' "interest" to come to the district.

A Greendale resident and parent said that he did not agree in waiting for everything to slow down before addressing the issue in Greendale. He and his wife were previously teachers in North Carolina, which has banned collective bargaining for public employees since 1959.

This is what that previous North Carolina resident had to say:

"Your fear is truly understood. Dr. Hughes said we are going to start entering uncharted waters and those waters are dark and deep and dangerous. Because what happens is that every year there is an exodus of qualified and dedicated teachers and who feel that they get no respect and anemic amounts of input into the system. 

"My question is why wait to reach out to Senator Lazich and Representative Stone and say this is how it has affected us. You can’t stand at the crossroads at this point in history watch it go by and then say see I told you so. You have to point in that direction and say that's where we are going. It's ugly down there and cold.

"There is a reason we moved here from North Carolina and it was to get out of a system like that.

I’ve spoken to most of you through phone or e-mail. I don’t see anyone reaching out to the parents and saying this is how you feel. I’ve talked to some of the parents who think that this is the world’s greatest thing because they will be saving $12 on their property taxes. And they have no idea what they are getting into. I know what I’m talking about. I’ve taught in a system like that and so did my wife and it’s a nightmare because the teachers get no respect. There is a great exodus of good teachers who go to the private sector where they pay more and get more respect. I wish that you let your thoughts and fears be known to the village because a lot of them don’t have an idea what this will mean to the village."

Silence fell in the room. Slota was going to issue a statement and after the man spoke he said, "I'll skip it."