SCHOOLS: Plenty of disparities

On Tuesday, Nov. 5, we see how the new Coeur d’Alene School District board is. It is a board and school administration that has little respect for employees unless you are a teacher or benefited employee.

If you read the article, money will be given to increase health benefits for the district teachers. That is cool! Money will be put in the reserve fund. That is a good idea. There is a move to put money into buying buses, OK, not the greatest. But it is the remaining funds that I truly have a heart burn with. It is to pay a lump sum to all benefited employees.

Being a retired military member, I long ago learned what can help or break morale. These actions definitely breed hostility when differentiating between types of workers.

What the school administrators and the board are saying is that those who are cooking the food, cleaning the buildings, and maintaining the fields for the children are not good enough to get a pay raise or any part of the excess money left over. There are those who go out in the early morning and stand in the cold/wind/rain/snow, protecting the children crossing the streets as well as other non-benefited employees who are not good enough either.

I know at least one worker who has stepped down because she felt disrespected from the last time Coeur d’Alene schools gave a bonus. You are essentially telling all part-time workers they are not good enough to receive any pittance of the excess monies. Many workers have worked up to five years without any increases.

So, now I have a suggestion: Food workers and crossing guards, stage a sick in. District, take those who get the bonus into the kitchen to cook the food, and get your coat on and protect the children while they cross the streets. Stop treating some employees like second class citizens.

This is yet another instance that the board did not need to take an emergency levy this year in the first place, but did because it required no voter approval. There are many others in the community who are having difficulty supporting their families, so refund the money back to the taxpayers.

GARY NYSTROM

Kootenai County