Dear Editor: 

I am writing this letter in response to the editorial of this past Sunday. My wife has debated on answering it herself, but after discussing it and assuring ourselves that that was the response you were wanting, I decided to respond instead, speaking for myself as a father of children in the Glasgow system and as a citizen.

You bring up several points, some with validity, some without, drawing on your conclusions of your view of this community as a whole. I am not going to delve into the OEA report. Everyone who is interested at this point has read it and may draw their own inferences from it. I would like to focus on a couple of your points and expound on those from another viewpoint.

You take a broad brush and paint a world of totally dark agendas on the board and amongst all its leaders, everyone out for themselves and their select constituents on some ominous road paved by Lord Voldemort. Does everyone have an agenda? Yes, probably. I hate to break it to you, but everyone in a leadership position must in order to lay out groundwork for their visions and plans. Not all agendas are bad, especially in a school system, whether it is wanting to keep our system in the academic elite of the state, having a Success Academy, or having the aspirations of new or better facilities. Leadership with agendas can lead to proactive stances and implementation; leadership without agendas leads to nothing but reactionary boards and councils that fall behind the curve. If you want to find examples of apathy, heavy handedness, favoritism, elitism or any other “ism” you want, you can find plenty of examples (and by the way, I’m referring to examples in the press and media, not the local school board). Before you paint a picture of a board on which everyone is on the same self-serving train driven by ambition and ignorance, why don’t you reread the report for what it actually says, without your between the lines pre-existing bias.

You allude to a looming void of leadership. Let us look at that a moment. Look back at the last few elections, how many have been opposed for the board of education? If you aren’t pleased with the current makeup of the board, whose fault is that, those that run? Glasgow Schools have churned out leaders for decades. The city of Glasgow has drawn innumerable others to this area for its industry and quality of life. Where are all those people now other than judging those whose position and headaches they didn’t want? I am envious of this place, having grown up in a place in the state with one of the poorer school systems, often wondering to what level I would have gotten if I had the opportunities a Glasgow school system affords its students. Instead of sitting back on your laurels and damning or proselytizing to the masses of what you see as shortcomings on the board, why don’t you actually do something that matters to the kids, LEAD. My wife ran for the board because she didn’t like all that was happening on the board and thought she could make a difference, period. People complain about things locally, in Frankfort, and in Washington continually, but if you aren’t willing to inconvenience yourself and put yourself in uncomfortable situations by either taking public stances, backing candidates or running yourself, then just accept what you have and be quiet. The place to make noise is on the front end, not now.

My wife and I are strong believers in systems. There are systems in place for potential wrong doing on multiple levels of governance; checks and balances exist. The OEA is the system for the school boards. They are doing their job now. Is the press and community going to do their respective jobs the next election cycle when there are unopposed candidates and demand more choices, or are your systems just to wait till those unopposed candidates do something not to their liking and crucify them then?

Dr. Kyle Kiser,

husband of Dr. Amelia Kiser,

Glasgow Independent School Board, Glasgow

Kentucky schools running off teachers

Dear Editor:

Hello! I am a Spanish teacher, certified K-12. I am in complete agreement with this article, but I do blame part of this problem on some of the districts themselves. I taught Spanish at a local school here in Kentucky. Unfortunately, the school district was unethical and unprofessional and did not renew my contract. I was treated terribly and unfairly, even though I had received excellent evaluations, earned my MA, studied in Spain and Mexico, bought a home here in order to be close to the school, etc. I was let go for no reason.

Now, they have hired a brand new teacher out of college with a history degree ... completely unqualified for the content area and unprepared for students needing to learn Spanish.

Unfortunately, there are other world language teachers (actually, other content area teachers, as well) having similar experiences in other schools. It is shameful that some Kentucky districts are running off good, qualified teachers who want and love to teach, and in turn, making this shortage even worse. There are already teachers being awarded positions in the surrounding states. If Kentucky is not careful, many more teachers will go that route, too. With all that being said, it would be very difficult for me to ever come back and teach here in Kentucky with the trepidation that all of the hard work, the love for my students and community means nothing.

Fortunately for me and my family, I found a position in Tennessee and it is the best school district and school environment in which I have ever worked! Everyone is valued and treated like a professional in his/her area. This district and director of schools want to retain teachers and they work very hard to do just that.