TEACHERS: Add a little more time

Mr. Rutherford, thank you and your fellow Cd’A teachers for your contribution to our precious children! There is no job more important than the training of our children. Our teachers need to be paid well and they are. Your column was an incredible literary work, but math is not your subject.

The district is quite thrifty and the state does need to pay more. However, the union, not the people, runs our schools and demands short teaching hours and staggering benefits locking your neighbors into burgeoning levies.

Salaries and benefits have been 88 to 90 percent of the budget. YES, THE BULK OF THE LEVIES GO TO SALARIES! Many teachers are required to teach only four hours and 10 minutes of a 7 1/2 hour day for only 170 days per year. The medical insurance is antiquated and incredibly costly. If teachers taught 5 hours of 7 1/2 (that’s 1/2 hour of prep for every hour of teaching) and we changed to health savings account insurance for the employee, the minimum savings would be $8 million per year. Contract bus drivers and eliminating benefits for part-timers saves more.

Why are you levying your neighbors without being willing to teach at least two-thirds of your day? And you work only 170 rather than the typical 250 days per year.

JOHN RUBERT

Hayden