We need educators on Ogden School Board

Editor,
Some years ago a large study of successful people who came out of at-risk neighborhoods was done. Three common factors were found:

1) There was a religion, 2) the school was considered a safe place and 3) there was a caring adult in their childhood.

Schools can provide two of these unless the stress level for the adults in the school is high. With stress, one finds adults with cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, etc.

I retired from the Ogden School District May 2011 after 21 years of employment. Fifteen of those years were at Dee Elementary. While there, the school went from housing the gifted and talented program, to having the lowest test scores in the state, to higher, then back to the lowest test scores. At present, they is not the lowest.

The last year I worked at Dee there were 24 teachers. There are 20, now. Six teachers are new this year. Two of us retired, one died and the rest moved to other schools or school districts.

During the last decade I worked, I found that the stress level was constantly increased due to the attempt to find curriculum that would be the magic button that would raise test scores. Curriculum was no longer the responsibility of the teachers who used it; but something the district had found. There was constant retraining. If teachers did not follow mandated instruction they were "written up." Professional courtesy was non-existent unless shown from teacher to teacher, but certainly not from management.

After I retired, the teachers were sent a letter they had to sign in order to retain their jobs. Teachers generally find new jobs in the spring. The letter came in late summer when new job opportunities are at their lowest. This was followed by the school board’s appointing the letter’s writer to the position of superintendent. This again emphasized a management style that devalued professional opinions of teachers.

None of the current board members or superintendent have experience as professional teachers. They’ve shown outright disregard for those who teach. Both David Tanner and J. Scott Handy have that experience.