My family received Evergreen Public Schools Superintendent John Deeder’s letter about the May 13 teacher walkout. I am concerned with the tone of the letter’s passage stating “this is not an action the district endorses or supports … the district also believes the Legislature should fully fund schools, we don’t believe pulling all teachers out of the classroom for a day is the way to convey this message.”
The teachers in this district are among the best and brightest in our state. Evergreen is widely respected throughout Washington as being an outstanding environment for students, as the teachers are some of the highest educated, most experienced and dedicated educators in the area. Test scores are admirable and parent and student satisfaction is high.
With this established, I find it disappointing that Deeder chose to interject inflammatory opinion into what should have been an informative, objective correspondence to the families in this district. Regardless of the perspective of administration, the choice to interject opinion into this can only serve to propagate a negative perspective of the teachers in his charge.
I am not debating the reasons behind, the benefits and disadvantages of, or the impact on students from the walkout. However, this is an abuse of Deeder’s public voice and far more detrimental to the “students’ education and our community” than a one-day walkout.
