To the editor:

Last week, the school board decided to deal with a lack of planning hours for elementary school teachers by reducing the time spent teaching the basics such as reading, writing and arithmetic and adding new curriculum, at a cost of $227,000 per year.

The school board also considered a second option to replace the reduced teaching time with increased specialist time (art, music) at $152,000.

Because they spend more time teaching, elementary teachers have 30 fewer planning hours per year than high school teachers. Based on my observations as a classroom volunteer, cutting time spent teaching the basics is detrimental to our kids.

A third option is to simply pay the teachers for the additional 30 hours. Using public records, I estimated this would cost $105,000.  School administrators suggested this was an unacceptable solution because it creates a differential pay scale. Other districts pay teachers more if they work more hours. I asked school board members why we can’t do the same, but received no reply.

The school board made its decision in spite of receiving a 93 percent “No” vote from the teachers’ union as part of the process. Parents were not invited to vote, and although the administration requested parents email their input to the school district, there is no report reflecting the input received.

Since the board has failed to consider not only the teachers’ but the parents’ views, maybe we should organize and make our collective voices heard.

ERIC TURLOFF

Bainbridge Island