Mike Dunne and Kendra Young were among those at teacher Town Hall
A group of county school teachers held a town hall meeting Sunday focused on questions related to teacher pay. However, only two County Commission members were there to provide answers.
Katherlyn Geter and David Sharpe attended the overflow meeting at the Brainerd Youth and Family Development Center.
School Board members present were Tucker McClendon, Tiffanie Robinson, Jenny Hill and Kathy Lennon.
County Mayor Jim Coppinger, Supt. Bryan Johnson and some school staff members were present at the meeting moderated by TV anchor and longtime school reporter David Carroll.
Officials fielded questions posed by teachers at the session organized by Kendra Young of Hamilton County United.
A sign at the front said: Imagine a system where teachers aren't overworked and underpaid.
Ms. Young said the system would break down if teachers did not dip into their own resources to field many needs.
She said there needed to be consensus that current funding levels going to the county Department of Education are "insufficient and unsustainable."
Ms. Young said finger-pointing and blaming should end and that officials should agree on a deadline for raising education funding.
County Mayor Coppinger, who advocated for a 34-cent property tax increase for the schools that failed 5-4 on the commission, said, "We've got to take a hard look at salaries."
He said when he was in school that teachers and principals seldom left their home school. He said he had the same group all the way through.
Ms. Lennon said Commissioner Sharpe had "made some good suggestions for solutions, but they don't go through." She said, "Thank you for offering up the wheel tax."
She said, "I think if the people in Hamilton County voted they would support you having a raise. But I don't think anything is going to happen until the people have a voice." She urged the teachers to continue to hold meetings and press for the pay increase.
Ms. Hill, noting that officials present were "preaching to the choir," said there was no use rehashing what happened in the past budget cycle that left teachers without the raise they sought. She urged the teachers to talk to parents they come into contact with about their needs.
Commissioner Geter told the group, "Your voice is key to this. We've got to hear from you."
County Mayor Coppinger said one stumbling block is "I've heard for 20 years that people don't trust the School Board to spend the money like they say they will."
Commissioner Sharpe said there had been many small community schools built over the years, but not the thinking was to eliminate some of those and become more efficient. He said if county residents would contribute more funds to the public schools there would be less need for parents to have to pay up to $25,000 a year to send their child to a private school.
He also called for "taking the politics out of the conversation. We should make it a human issue and not a political issue. There is so much grand standing that goes on. It's not productive."
Ms. Lennon helped close out the meeting by saying, "You are worth it. Our children are worth it. Come again and bring more teachers. Let's get a bigger place to meet. Let's have the children here too."