IN THE MIX:Keep the best teachers around

I sometimes read the comments posted on the Daily Pilot website after a controversial story. Lately I’ve seen plenty written about the Newport Mesa Unified School District teachers protesting that they are the lowest paid of the county’s unified districts.

I’m not sure what’s so controversial about giving teachers a raise, but apparently it is. I sometimes have to force myself not to read the comments after certain stories, or at least remind myself that surely not everyone in Costa Mesa is reflected on these message threads.

When I wandered back into the comment section following these salary stories I was hardly shocked, but definitely bummed to see comments questioning the motives of teachers and whether they deserve a raise.

I thought it was pretty well accepted that there aren’t many more important jobs in this country than that of an educator — especially educators of our children.

Most politicians seem to believe this as they talk of the value of education, but year after year the same issues pop up in our schools. We see that there are not enough books, computers or resources for the students, yet we still expect top results from the teachers.

When I read the nasty Web comments about teachers I figure that the author likely had a horrible experience with one teacher or two, or perhaps they don’t have children in the school system, or they aren’t actually involved in their child’s class so they don’t know what the teacher does on a daily basis.

If you aren’t involved or don’t have kids in school, I wonder where the negative information comes from. If you’re basing your animosity on experiences in your own scholastic career or on a couple of your kids’ teachers, you should probably widen your experiences.

There are definitely bad teachers out there, but there are bad everybodies out there. I realize there are built-in perks to being a teacher such as having holidays and usually summers off, but that doesn’t negate the need for a decent income. You still need to offer enough to both live on and draw in the best of the educator crop. It’s logical that the more competitive the pay, the better the choices administrators will have from their pool of applicants and the more able they’ll be to make sure teachers are performing up to standards.

We want only the best in our schools, right? Teachers perform an essential service for our society. A good teacher has one eye on educating and another on children in need of extra care. We’ve been reading lately about methods to alleviate gangs in Costa Mesa. Some may think the best solution would be to round up potential gang members and ship them to a faraway land, but we’re dealing with reality and in reality any kid can have an amazing life with the proper influence. Think what a well-motivated high-caliber mentor could do.

It may seem logical to blame the Newport-Mesa school board for the teachers being the lowest paid in the county, but it’s not likely that simple. These decisions are usually based on the budget the district has to work with. In order to give teachers a raise something else has to give. It can be a tough order to be the person charged with deciding what that something is going to be. Unfortunately, that decision has to be made and these teachers have to get what’s necessary to keep them in our schools.

I can guarantee that each of my children’s teachers have helped to guide my children toward a high-achieving academic career. I don’t want to lose one of them because another district pays better.

One of their teachers was Sue McVeigh. I have two very different children and she nurtured both of them beautifully while encouraging them academically. Like many teachers she buys a lot of her own supplies and rewards her students for their reading accomplishments with trips to the movies or to lunch on her dime.

Now she is actually considering leaving us. Us — her community, kids she knows and cares about, kids whose birthday parties and soccer games she attends. She is thinking of leaving us!

A mid-level raise may not change these teacher’s lives, but if a mid-level raise will keep them around, these teachers can change our kids’ lives.