I am writing this to humbly ask your readers to vote yes on the upcoming levy for the Centralia School District. As an elementary teacher in the district for the past 10 years, and as co-president of our Centralia Education Association’s (CEA) teachers’ union, I am uniquely positioned to advocate on behalf of the district and our students.
I know that our district has our share of problems and issues; believe me, I am living them every day. Our special education department needs support staff desperately. Our paraprofessionals are the backbone of our schools, and we need as many as we can get. Student behaviors are more challenging than they’ve ever been, and we need the behavior and mental health specialists in our buildings. We need our instructional facilitators and our counselors available to offer support. We need athletics, music and other extracurricular enrichment opportunities for our students. All of these are things that the levy provides.
The district has made plenty of resources available on levy funding, dollar allocation and tax rate. What I am writing to tell your readers is, there are also great things happening in Centralia schools. Classrooms are filled with educators who are doing their very best, every day, to meet the needs of the community’s children. I meet weekly with our superintendent and our director of human resources, and the relationship between the district and CEA has grown in collaboration and transparency over the past few years. There are moments of disagreement (as in any labor relations relationship), but we are proactively trying to find solutions together and have the same goal at heart — the kids. Whatever you imagine our shortcomings to be, I can assure you they will not be solved or improved with less funding.
Like many others, I have dedicated my career to this community. I do that by choice — because I want to encourage my students to be critical thinkers, life-long learners and believers that they are capable of anything. That a well-rounded education can be their way to a better life and that they determine their futures, not their circumstances. I know times are hard, and I understand the challenges many in the community are facing with finances. But please, consider the fact that educating our children is the way to make the future better for Centralia.
I invite anyone with reservations on the levy to come volunteer in a school. You’ll see the challenges, and the very obvious need for resources. But I think you’ll also see faces of students and hear stories that would make it awfully hard to tell these kids they don’t deserve the same opportunities as students in surrounding districts. It takes a village, and all that. I am very proud to be a part of this village, and am asking this community to please join me in supporting these students.
There are so many obstacles already for so many; the support of their community shouldn’t be one of them.
Angie Brown
Centralia
CEA Co-President
