Thank you, Elk Grove, for supporting teachers

Thank you, thank you for all the horns honked, thumbs up signs, hands waved, smiles and support you poured out for us during our "informational picket" last night. We felt loved by you, our community. It is something lacking in today's world of teacher bashing.

Elk Grove knows that the Elk Grove Unified School District is the gel that unites our community and has been for over 50 years, and its teachers are what makes EGUSD work. More than 1,000 teachers and other employees of the district walked, dressed in black, to the EGUSD board room. The idea was a funeral march to mourn the death of interest-based bargaining. As Elk Grove Education Association president Maggie Ellis stated, "This isn't just about health care."

We want a district administration we can work with to solve problems, not one who says one thing and does something else. We want a district that honors agreements made and doesn't try to hide a surplus of funds. And we discovered last night that some of you want the same. Maybe you want your kids to attend school for a full year, with no furlough days. You want your kids to be in classes of a reasonable size, instead of your school district hoarding money. You want your local school to be well staffed, with teachers and support staff like custodians, para-educators, etc. You want what we want: the best for the children of our community.