By Antonio D. French
Filed Wednesday, May 3 at 9:54 AM
The following letter appeared in the May 3 edition of the Post-Dispatch:
Criticism is Unwarranted Over Teacher Absences
As members of the St. Louis Board of Education, we are concerned deeply that Superintendent Creg Williams' unwarranted attack on teachers will cripple our efforts to educate the children of St. Louis ("Teachers have to show up, too. The absentee rate is unacceptable," April 27).
Children need teachers in order to learn. The St. Louis School District long has had trouble attracting qualified teachers to teach our children. At the last school board meeting, we voted to reorganize four schools where shortages of qualified teachers had doomed the students to low scores on state tests. As many as 40 percent of the teaching slots at those schools had to be filled with substitute teachers because the school district could not attract enough qualified teachers to fill those positions permanently.
We believe negatively stereotyping teachers, which Dr. Williams did, will construct an image of the St. Louis Public Schools as a district that teachers should avoid. Dr. Williams' campaign would be ridiculous if not potentially damaging. He criticizes teachers for following orders to attend professional development seminars during class time. It was the superintendent, with school board approval, who scheduled the seminars during class time and made attendance mandatory. There is no excuse for that kind of criticism.
A previous school board stripped teachers of accumulated sick days, instituted the most restrictive time-off policy in the area and told teachers that if they did not use the time off available, they would lose it. If there is a problem with the policy, Dr. Williams should come to the board with proposals for changing the policy instead of criticizing those who follow it.
Dr. Williams is criticizing teachers for following policy. Such criticism is unwarranted and injurious to the district and efforts to attract the qualified teachers our children need and deserve.
SLPS Board Member Peter Downs
SLPS Board Member Donna Jones
SLPS Board Member William Purdy
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