Teacher (Lack Of) Appreciation Week

Next month will be quite hectic for the hard-working educators in our community, even by the standards of their regularly busy schedules. Between final preparation of students for high-stakes end-of-course exams, plus proctoring said exams, and helping the senior classes through their final few weeks of life in the K-12 galaxy - and, of course, the whole “teaching bell to bell” thing which is a part of their daily ritual - we understand if some need to enter “breathing” and “sleeping” as reminders in their daily calendars.

There are two additional, very important events taking place in May on which teachers across the district are keeping an eye. The first is Teacher Appreciation Week, which is May 1-5 in the School District of Palm Beach County. This is a golden opportunity for our communities, parents, and students to salute educators whose job it is to help prepare young adults for their future as leaders in business, agriculture, industry, the military, and politics.

Yet, somehow the school district’s own website fails to acknowledge this celebration of teachers. Yeah, there's a link to a story about this year’s six William T. Dwyer Award for Excellence in Education recipients, and a link to Volunteer Appreciation Week (which was this past week, in case you didn’t know). And maybe there will be some sort of announcement when the calendar turns to May. But for those educators who find it difficult to believe the district for which they work really does care about them - and the yearly battles over seemingly far-too-minimal pay raises, combined with far-too-hefty increases in health care premium costs, contribute to this perception - then the lack of publicity by their employer only serves as one more example of a disconnect that exists within the county borders.

Meanwhile, the district is trying to put on a good show for its Saturday, May 20, job fair at Park Vista High School. Human Resources Director Gail Williams said in a press release the job fair “is a great way to meet with hundreds of candidates - whether they are new graduates, transitioning from other careers, or interested in moving to the area - to join us in Palm Beach.”

A major change made by the district in advance of the job fair was approval of the 2017-18 school calendar, which removes those pesky half-day workshops and adds several vacation days to the week of Thanksgiving (making it a full week off from classes, barring implementation of hurricane makeup days). But there are many educators who scoff at the idea the district can entice new faces in the classroom until the salary situation is rectified.

At the Dwyer Awards ceremony April 25, Superintendent Dr. Robert Avossa pointed fingers at the state Legislature, and encouraged continued communication with state lawmakers to open the fiscal pursestrings and make education funding a priority. But I still believe there is plenty of wasteful spending within the Taj Mahal on Forest Hill Blvd. that could be reduced and applied toward salaries and other true enticements for current and future educators. If the district truly wants to celebrate teachers, both current and future, it needs to find ways of making them feel like Palm Beach County is worthy of their being here. It takes more than lip service to make that happen.