Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

This is a letter of hope and inspiration!  Each year I have written to you concerning Winter Carnival. Right before the February school break, Wiscasset High School Student Council sponsored the annual Winter Carnival celebration. I want to thank all the students and staff who made this year's carnival an awesome event!!

The night before Winter Carnival Day many teachers stayed and monitored students with poster-making and other tasks associated with pulling off a super fun Winter Carnival Day. Being the Advisor to Student Council, I was so lucky to be in the building that night and was so encouraged by what I witnessed, not only that night, but also the following day. First of all, the attendance by students and staff was close to 100 percent!!  In years past, attendance rates had sometimes been low, but in the last couple of years attendance at Winter Carnival Day has soared!  Students from every social "clique" come together for that day, forgot their differences, and give their very best efforts to the  competitions. To claim the title of Winter Carnival Winners is so important to them!! At the end of the day, the Spirit Stick is awarded to the winning class to take a victory lap around the gym.

To see the expressions on the faces of the kids was definitely uplifting! (Of course, playing the song "We are the Champions" in the background helped as well!) Watching the interaction between students and teachers was so inspiring. I found myself wishing that every member of the school board, the superintendent and citizens of the community could have witnessed what I saw that day.

 It was a day of building relationships through unbiased sportsmanship and team work.  It was a day of hard work and outstanding effort. It was a day of seeing teachers and students in a different light, an extremely important light. The act of giving your all and working together for an important common goal.  The smiles and camaraderie were rampant.  Many schools in the state spend thousands of dollars holding workshops and conferences trying to capture and promote what I saw here that day!  Contrary to what we have seen in the local papers lately, Wiscasset High School is alive with positive learning and teaching!  

Winter Carnival Day was an outstanding cooperative effort by students and their teachers, to have a memorable day not just for fun but for learning some of the most important lessons in this life. There are a lot of negative things being said lately about teacher negotiations and budget cuts for our schools. Surely It is a tough time financially for many towns. I truly think that our town has been given an opportunity to move forward in a positive manner to ensure that our schools remain a nurturing environment for our kids to learn.

I have lived in Wiscasset for over 45 years, am a graduate of WHS, am a parent of children who went through our schools, a past chairman of the School Board, a member of numerous town committees as well as a long-time member of the Wiscasset Planning Board. I believe that our community is a strong one and that we need to continue to teach our children the importance of education and the power of people to work together.   

There is hope that as a community we will have a positive outcome which will be the best product of everyone; teachers, school board, budget committee, and community, working together with positive determination and team work similar to what I had the privilege to see at this year's WHS Winter Carnival. In the end, we should all be "winners" and have a hold on the "Spirit" stick as we take our "victory" run

Sincerely,

Debra Pooler

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

After reading Superintendent Jay McIntire's and the Wiscasset School Committee's comments in the Lincoln County News cover story on February 20 as well as in the letter to the editor, we were greatly disappointed. As educators, we have and continue to do all we can to insulate our students from the ugly negotiations process in Wiscasset.

We are a staff with great experience, creativity and vision toward the future of education in this district, and we focus our energies on preparing our students for the 21st century. We have been unsuccessful in conducting a true "work to contract" for the very reason that we have and continue to put students ahead of ourselves. We simply won't walk out on a student who needs assistance. Our feeble attempt to adhere to our contract as much as possible has created less impact on students and more of a strain on teachers who are accustomed to staying late, working hours at home or coming in early to do our jobs well.

Of course we are frustrated by the long negotiation process and have considered actions that would bring public attention to our situation. In the spring of 2007, in an attempt to work with administration and avoid misunderstanding, the Wiscasset Teachers Association asked the superintendent for a list of expected duties beyond the letter of our contract. The superintendent did not respond to that request.

Almost a year later, teachers began a discussion of a possible job action that might be tried during a two week period in order to draw public attention to the situation. We quickly decided that there was not enough support to engage in this proposal, and we let the matter drop. Mr. McIntire, however, directed an investigation of staff e-mails and initiated a lawsuit against the teachers based upon them. Mr. McIntire and the school committee never communicated with the teachers or the union to inquire about this e-mail correspondence prior to making the decision to take the teachers to court. The judge, upon hearing both sides, ordered Mr. McIntire to create the very list of expected duties that the teachers had asked for so long ago. Once the list was created, Mr. McIntire and the School Committee dropped their lawsuit.

While teachers are grateful for the clarity provided by this list of expected duties, the list falls far short of what we expect of ourselves. The teachers of this district are and always have been highly dedicated professionals. Our students remain our first priority and we care deeply about their learning. We will continue to put students first throughout this long negotiation process and resent any implication to the contrary.

Sincerely,

MaryEllen Bell

Tom Block

Gretchen Burleigh-Johnson

Cindy Carter

Matt Cook

Rob Cronk

Andrea DiBenedetto

Linda Dygert

Tim Flanagan

Michelle Fraser

Ralph Keyes

Vicki Lindquist

Lucy Moses

Deb Olson

Judy Parent

Jean Phillips

Carla Pierce

Kathy Puff

Michelle Reeves

Chris Riser

Chip Schwehm

Sue Shorey

Darcey Stevenson

Sarah Sutter

Deb Taylor

Shari Templeton

Dan True

Cynthia Turcotte

Molly Winchenbach