Schools
Letter to the Editor: Birmingham Public Schools Millage
Birmingham Education Association president writes about staff contributions to support the ballot issue.
This letter was submitted by Birmingham Education Association President Scott Warrow:
Birmingham Public Schools (BPS) teachers, along with secretaries and paraprofessionals, helped invigorate the BPS Millage Drive by providing $3,500 in contributions to support Friends of BPS.
Over the last several years, the Birmingham Education Association (BEA) – the union representative of teachers, secretaries, and paraprofessionals – has collected donations from members for political action.
Find out what's happening in Birminghamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
As requested by the representatives of each union, Scott Warrow, the president of the BEA, presented the check to the Birmingham Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) at its September meeting at to gracious applause of many parents.
Cris Braun, legislative liaison of Friends of BPS, said the community is grateful to receive this financial boost to its campaign.
Find out what's happening in Birminghamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"That contribution provided the much-needed seed money to get started on printed materials, advertisements and home mailings, which are a significant portion of our budget. Their generous donation illustrates the very good relationship between our BPS union staff and our parent community. We realize that this Millage Renewal will only pass if we all work together to keep our schools strong," Braun said.
The collective union groups of BPS have worked together to support this important millage. Passage is essential in order to maintain stable funding for the school district and ensure continued programming for our students.
Since 2003 the district has already made $28 million in reductions to the budget through sacrifices from its staff. Teachers, secretaries, and paraprofessionals know that reductions can no longer be absorbed without negatively affecting our classrooms.
Failure to pass this millage would result in an $805 per student cut each year for the next 10 years, which would devastate our ability to teach and care for the children of Birmingham Public Schools.
The BEA, in support of the PTSA, urges residents to VOTE YES on Nov. 8.
– Scott Warrow,
President, Birmingham Education Association
The viewpoints in this letter are those of the writers, and Patch is not responsible for any ideas portrayed as facts. For questions and clarifications, please leave a comment below or contact editor Laura Houser at laura.houser@patch.com or 248-534-9780.
