Petition to tell school board and administration T/E residents say NO to outsourcing para educators and aids.

I have started a petition to give people in the community the opportunity to make their opinion on outsourcing in the T/E school district known. If you say NO to outsourcing, please sign:

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-tredyffrin-easttown-school-board-no-outsourcing-of-para-educators-and-aids-in-t-e-schools

Some of you in the community are aware of a recent move to outsource paraeducators and aids in the T/E school district. Most of those who are aware, are outraged. We all understand that there are budgetary issues facing all school districts, but for T/E to single out this one group - a small financial line item in the overall budget - for dismissal is counter productive, counter intuative, bad for the children, for the community, tax payers and morale. 

What's more, the school board chose to target this subset of 175, mostly part-time, non-union employees with little time for anyone to respond to the issue, and, based on what was presented at the school board meeting I attended on May 13, 2013, with a blantant disregard for facts (honest misunderstanding or willful ignorance of actual healthcare costs, impact of the Affordable Care Act, number of employees that would be heath care eligable, number of employees that would require healthcare, type of plan required vs. currently offered, and more), lack of due diligance into the company being hired to outsource (no guarantee that current employees will keep jobs, no assurance that workers coming in will have more then a GED, that it won't be a revolving door/temp agency approach, no knowledge that barely a phone interview is required for hiring, that there is only a 3-hour training required for aids to the most challenged children, that there is no precendence for this company for a similar circumstance in another school district), "fuzzy math" regarding the financial impact on current employees (assuming they are rehired by the outsourcing company, claims that they will actually "make more" after they get a pay cut and lose the ability to invest in a retirement fund due to unemployment benefits--which they would then lose their entitlement to assuming they did get rehired as "promised.") and a lack of imagination around what the real impact would be (on the school and quality of education, on the aids/educators, on the children who are the unwitting victims, on the safety of our schools, and on the reputation of the T/E school district). This impacts every tax payer, whether they have children in the public schools or NOT b/c in the end, school excellence = high property values. 

In addition to all of the financial, logistical and emotional impacts, there is the fact that these are valued, hardworking, well-educated, contributing members of our community who live and work here, and, for very little pay and benefits, give back so much. 

If you say NO to outsourcing para educators and aids and you live in the T/E school district, please join with me in signing this petition and make your voice heard.

The outspoken residents who attended the last school board meeting were able to delay the vote. Please help us to now shut it down.

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-tredyffrin-easttown-school-board-no-outsourcing-of-para-educators-and-aids-in-t-e-schools

Some related duscussions on the matter appear in the links below. 

http://pattyebenson.org/2013/05/14/outsourcing-analysis-by-te-school-dis...

http://pattyebenson.org/2013/05/16/te-school-district-intimidation-to-si...

Thank you!

Maeve