Shari Barnett for Saline Board of Education

No individuals in our district have a greater passion for education than our teachers.  Having a great teacher who inspires students and goes the extra mile to ensure each student comprehends their lessons is what sets the course for student success.  The teachers in Saline Area Schools are exceptional.  Nearly all have advanced degrees and post-graduate certifications. However, in the past 5-years, teacher support from SAS Administration has not been consistent.  Whether it is mandates being pushed down to abide by specific pedagogy and ideological concepts, or less than full support when teachers request disciplinary action be taken for disruptive student behavior, the district’s administration has moved to micromanage every aspect of the school operation.  Teachers who have spent 5, 6, or 8+ years studying education are now superseded in authority when it comes to how course content is delivered, what and how ideological content is weaved into the course and whether or not disciplinary action is needed in efforts to course correct disruptive students.  In some instances, these circumstances are leading to dysfunction and chaos.  Our teachers don’t deserve this and neither do our students.  Our teachers should be free to be the professionals that they trained to be and our students deserve an environment to learn in that is free from disruption and ideological underpinnings.

We are all living in a complex world that feels very much like it is on fast-forward most days. Ask any teacher who has been in the field for 15 or more years and they will most likely tell you that the content that is being taught in their grade is the content that was taught in more advanced grades several years ago.  More and more complex content, introduced at earlier ages is stressful and for some children, requires additional time to grasp the concepts being taught.  I feel this is a time to carve out more time for instruction or exposure to academic concepts, not decrease it.  However, look into your child’s school day and you will see that more time is being diverted to non-academic, social and emotional teaching.  How is this supported in terms of the budget? If elected to SAS Board of Education, I would work to find out how much of the budget is being diverted to this non-academic topic.  This is an important question because I feel it is imperative that SAS remain as one of the school districts in Michigan that compensates their teachers as high as possible.  However, current teacher salary data contradicts this issue.  According to the MDE Bulletin, in 2011/12, SAS was ranked 5th out of 825 school districts in terms of highest average teacher salary.  In 2018/19 SAS was ranked 32nd and in 2022/2023, SAS is ranked 78th in highest average teacher salary. 

If elected to the SAS Board of Education, my aim would be to scrutinize the flow of dollars and seek accountability from the administration in terms of money spent and value added.  It seems that the public education system has experienced some egregious scope-creep in terms of their intended mission.  I feel the public education system should refocus their efforts on instruction of academic course work.  I feel the best public education is one that focuses on ensuring each student meets their academic benchmarks for each grade level, minimizes ideologic underpinnings and aims to produce a generation of students with exceptional critical thought capabilities and cognitive empathy.  The public schools should not be encouraging or instructing students to be disruptors and agitators, which I can confirm is occurring in SAS.  I believe we can educate students who strive to change the world by becoming scientists, educators, engineers, authors, musicians, journalists, machinists, inventors, etc., rather than by engaging in violent or disruptive protests and demonstrations.