Don’t let Dist. 300 students down

The Sears EDA tax break would be devastating to our district for many reasons you have probably heard of. The people that would suffer the most are our students.

Their valuable programs would be cut and face-to- face time with teachers and mentors would be less and less due to increasing class sizes. They did not ask for this.

As our Superintendent, Mr. Bregy, has stated, we don’t want to see Sears leave. We don’t want to see people lose their jobs. However, what about us? Does it matter if teachers are cut and we lose our jobs due to the lack of funding that we will not receive? The ones who put in extra time before and after school and work tirelessly through lunches and weekends? The ones who spend our own earnings on our classrooms to give children real and engaging experiences?

Some days we are the only person in a student’s life telling them that we believe in them. We are their structure, their encouragement and their hope. Why is it a better option for us to be cut?

Finally, I ask you to think about integrity and loyalty. Sears told our district that we would get the tax dollars after the EDA expired and then retracted their word. As a parent, when something is taken away from your child, you take it to heart and fight to get it back because we do not want to see our children suffer. Our children in D300 have been promised funding to better their education and now that’s in jeopardy.

As teachers, it is now up to us to make sure they are given to them what is deserved. We are their voice and we must not let them down.

Andrea Rynearson

District 300 Teacher

Pingree Grove