A Call for the School Board and Teachers to Settle

Mandy McFarland, Editor of the Nappanee Advance-News, recently reported that the May 5 mediation session between the Wa-Nee Education Association and the Wa-Nee Community Schools board of trustees failed to produce satisfying results. The two parties will reconvene again on May 20 to try to reach an agreement.

According to Wa-Nee Education Association President Jim Mattern, the board offered Wa-Nee teachers a zero-percent pay raise for the school year and an increase in insurance rates and has considered increasing their general fund by cutting programs. Most of us living within the community would need to agree that is not acceptible. We expect better from our schools and our school board. We want top quality schools, teachers, and programs.

At the same time we must recognize that our school administrators and the school board are placed in a difficult position when financial resources are not sufficient to meet the expectations of our teachers, students, parents, and the community. The decision by the state legislature to reduce property tax for home owners come at a cost to all of us, including cities, schools and libraries who are all dependent on tax income to meet their expenses.

Quality comes at a cost, a fact sometimes forgotten by property taxpayers when complaining about their tax bills and demanding relief from legislators. Legislators, in turn, responded to the concerns they heard from their constituents - some might suggest without giving adequate and thoughtful reflection on the results. Sure, they raised sales taxes but they also took control of local needs in government, libraries, and schools away from local communities.

Perhaps the time has come for some public local forums to discuss the quality education we want along with the cost of this quality. I would suggest that when representatives of the teachers association and school board meet again, with a mediator, that the time has come to include observors representing parents and community and even our state legislative representative. The need for real solutions affects us all.