An active responds to Dennis Leone's STRS Update, CORE alert

Cindy Strader (Lexington schools) to Dennis Leone

June 2, 2006

Mr. Leone,

Thank-you for the detailed update. You are shining some light where it needs to be shone. At least we have two board members with common sense and a clear understanding of their responsibility. Clearly this board has been fattening themselves and their friends on our pension money for a long time. Sounds all too familiar - like Washington. That attitude and those actions give one a helpless, hopeless feeling. Thank goodness someone took action to change the "entitled attitude" of this board.

In our district we are reimbursed only $750 per year for classes and there is a cap on that, such that we run out every year. We have to have the majority of our education done before we are even hired and must continue to pay those school loans on low starting salaries. Students in our building have just completed final exams in a building without air conditioning and many of those rooms are without windows. Those rooms that do have windows have no screens. I have 2 fans in my room without windows, to try to keep us comfortable, but I had to provide those fans myself. Further, due to security, outside doors remain closed depriving us of much needed air that used to come down the halls.

Perhaps you could pass these facts on to your board to give them more "perspective".

It's amazing that they were asking the retirees to take cuts, those whose money they were charged with growing, when they were providing excesses to their own employees! Many of these board members are former teachers and OEA officials, who know what we put up with and do without in our careers or should. I'm still not feeling too good about them asking for MORE money from us and our districts.

Also, our incremental steps are for experience gained and after 12 years, we only get them every 3 years.

I could go on. I'm thankful for what we do have but excess and waste should most certainly not be a part of our teacher pension funds.

Thanks for your work. Hopefully you will not be poisoned too by the "board entitlement club" attitude.