Open letter to the PVUSD Board of Trustees:
I’m going to throw modesty out the window here and just speak the truth. I am a highly effective and engaging teacher. I am a teacher you want and need to keep in PVUSD. I can take a Sophomore World History student who cannot write more than a few sentences at the beginning of the year, and get him writing whole essays that cite primary sources and build arguments. I have brought my passion for literacy to my colleagues and have influenced how they teach.
And yet—for my first three years, I received a letter from you that coldly stated my “services were no longer needed”. For three years in a row, you turned away a highly effective teacher, and made the statement that Watsonville kids no longer required my services of teaching effective literacy strategies. You not only gave me an incentive to bring my effective services elsewhere, but you sent me home with a letter that turned me away as well.
Over the course of last year, I had three students admit to me that they were planning on killing themselves. They had told no one—except me. Because of my effective teaching strategies, I had managed to build a level of trust with my students that saved three lives. Three PVUSD students could have committed, or attempted to commit suicide—and yet, my services are not valuable to you.
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As a first generation college student, it was necessary for me to take on some hefty debt in order to become a teacher. I did not graduate high school, neither did my older brother, and my parents obtained a low level of education—and yet I now hold a master’s degree. I have used my story to identify with many PVUSD students, and have been able to convince numerous students who were contemplating dropping out of school, to instead remain in school. Many of these students have now graduated from a PVUSD school. And yet, my services are not valuable to you.
With this college debt, comes a pricy monthly bill. My PVUSD salary is not enough to even pay the minimum payment on my student loan bill. Please understand the irony here—my PVUSD salary is not enough to pay the minimum payment on my student loans I needed to take out to earn the degrees needed to work for PVUSD. This is not a sustainable system. Every year I have to make a choice: do I continue to change lives, and even save lives in the school I love, or do I find a new job in order to pay my student debt.
My services may not be valuable to you, but they are invaluable to the Watsonville community. Watsonville students need and deserve amazing and dedicated teachers. In my short time in the community I have watched teachers like myself take jobs in other districts and earn $20,000 more a year. With $20,000 extra a year, I would be able to afford my loan payments. I would also feel like I was working for a district that valued my services.
It is time for PVUSD to stop turning away amazing teachers. We can afford to attract and retain a quality teaching staff that our community deserves. We can afford to lower class sizes so students receive the individual attention they need and deserve. It is time PVUSD begins living up to their stated mission statement, and actually “support learners in reaching their highest potential”.
It’s time you do your job, what the community elected you to do, and invest in our students.
It’s time to value the services of your teaching staff.
Ryan Jones
World History Teacher
Watsonville High School
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