Duneland Schools
Superintendent Dr. Chip Pettit released the following statement this morning
on the Red for Ed Action Day event on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
The statement in
full:
“School teachers
and administrators from all over the state will converge at the State
Capitol on Tuesday, Nov. 19, for Red for Ed Action Day. The Action Day is
centered around the following three issues:
“The Indiana
General Assembly should:
--Prioritize public
school funding to benefit our students and improve teacher compensation.
--Hold students,
teachers, and communities harmless from I-LEARN
--Repeal
requirement that teachers volunteer 15 ‘externship’ hours for license
renewal.
“In collaboration
with our administrative team, 20 teachers were selected by the Duneland
Teachers Association (DTA) to represent the school district at this event.
In addition, Mr. McDermott (Assistant Superintendent) and I intend to travel
to Indianapolis with our teacher contingent. In our discussions with DTA, we
agreed that we would make every attempt to not close down Duneland Schools
on Nov. 19.
“Public education
in the State of Indiana has reached this critical juncture as a result of
the state legislature’s decrease to public education funding from 68 percent
of the state budget in 2010 to 63 percent in 2019, while at the same time,
inflation has risen by 16 percent. We are very fortunate to live in a
community that has supported public schools above this level of state
funding. Your support of the General Fund referendum in May 2019 has allowed
DSC to maintain high-level programming for the children in our community
while offsetting inadequate funding from the state legislature.
“The Duneland
School Corporation fully supports increased state funding for public
education. We believe it is important to stay vocal and support this
movement without negatively impacting our regularly scheduled school day(s).
The Nov. 19 Red for Ed Rally is just the first phase in what will be a
sustained effort to engage our state legislature and governor on public
education policy and the inadequacies in public school funding.
“We must work
together, with our faculty, staff, parents, and community members to
communicate the reasons and goals of the Red for Ed movement, because in the
end, it will take the support of all stakeholders throughout the state to
affect real school policy change in Indianapolis. Ultimately, school funding
changes will directly benefit our students, families and community.”