Letter: Option is not better
Editor, Daily News:
[Dennis Thompson's] alternative plan, should the Collier County School Board vote “no” to outsourcing the custodians, includes cutting one media assistant at each elementary school and one clerical position at each school in the district.
The people in these positions have direct contact with students throughout the school day.
While the media specialist is instructing students how to use the library, do research and other important age-appropriate skills, the media assistant is the person behind the counter circulating books, shelving returns and answering numerous questions for both students and teachers.
They are also the people helping your child find reading material to instill the love of reading. In addition, they are gathering materials for teachers to use in their classrooms and monitoring students sent to use the library.
The media assistant “assists” students and teachers. Removing media assistants would hurt reading programs at all elementary schools, as the media specialist would be unable to implement the special programs they offer while running the day-to-day business of the library.
A clerical position would also be cut at every school. Don’t be fooled by the word “clerical.” The majority of their day is spent making sure your children get on and off the bus safely, looking after students during lunch and recess and helping out in the reading lab. The “clerical” worker supports the classroom teachers, who need every minute of their time to teach your children.
Please note that 80 dedicated employees who have a direct affect on your child’s education every day will no longer be employed by the school system. We will lose our jobs and benefits without another company waiting to hire us.
I do not support outsourcing the custodians, but I cannot support cutting positions that directly affect children every day.
M.I., Media assistant, Lake Park Elementary
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To "M.I." at Lake Park Elementary --
I think you are a big doo-doo head.
Signed,
Denni$ Thomp$on
Doctorite in Ed Psych
$UPER$TUPIDINTENDENT
