Teacher wants new leadership on board

I am a 13-year teacher in a Burbank elementary school, a mother of

two Burbank former students and a Burbank voter. As a teacher in

Burbank, I am accustomed to the Burbank School Board ignoring

requests from teachers and school administrators.

I am used to the school board taking credit for academic

improvements, which were done 100% by the classroom teachers, and for

being accused of shortfalls that come to our district, which teachers

have no influence over.

As a teacher, I am used to the school board accusing us of

wrongdoing without ever being contacted by them, even if it is only

one parent who had a problem.

As a mother of two Burbank graduates who started as kindergartners

in Burbank, I am also used to the school board ignoring my requests.

It had no problem with verbally disciplining a teacher that one or

two parents had a problem with, but they did not think they should be

disciplined when a whole community of parents had a problem with

their decision-making process. As a Burbank voter, I feel that the

school board has not been honest with me.

I also feel that when they were given a chance of help from the

City Council with monetary aid, the school board turned it down

because they didn’t want any decision-making help. Why not?

Obviously, they were having a problem making monetary decisions, but

their egos got in the way and therefore, they were not thinking of

the students.

The school board is trying to make us believe that our monetary

shortfalls are being caused by the budget cuts. I believe that some

of them are, but as we can all remember, we had a $2 million loss of

money last year because of the school board’s bad decisions. I would

like to ask, “How can you lose $2 million?” I have a hard time

misplacing $20 before I start looking everywhere for it. Therefore, I

can’t even imagine how you could lose that much money.

As a teacher, mother and Burbank voter, I am asking that all

Burbank voters please vote in a new school board. There are three

seats open on this coming election. The Burbank Teachers Assn. has

recommended three candidates for the school board: Dave Kemp, Paul

Krekorian and Larry Applebaum.

Please help your students, teachers and parents have a better

communication process with the school system by voting in a new

school board.

SUSAN DEVIN

Burbank