Executive
Viewpoint
Your school is valuable to your community
I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to attend various conferences, meetings, and site visits across the state, both in-person and virtually. I even had the opportunity to be at Portland Elementary when they announced winning a National Blue Ribbon. The excitement of the staff and students was evident by the sounds of squawking party noisemakers and the enjoyment of blue cupcakes. I learned from each interaction with our members that every community's education team has joyously opened their school for students with energy, enthusiasm, and understandable trepidation. The trepidation stems from keeping students and staff safe, but educators have been more than willing to take these risks to help ensure that kids are learning Dr. Mike Hernandez AAEA Executive Director
It is also obvious that every school community's goal is to remain open and work tirelessly to serve our children's educational, social-emotional, and physical health needs during this pandemic. COVID-19 and its long, drawn-out damage have all community members feeling exhausted, confused, and frustrated because of the impact the virus has had on our lives and the lives of our loved ones, friends, and neighbors. In the past several months, the anger has been directed toward the leadership of our schools. All levels of school staff and anyone supporting schools or serving to meet the needs of children have experienced some form of negative feedback. In many communities, these feelings have been expressed in public settings leading to tense situations that our children are observing. There have even been threats of violence toward those who have committed their life and career to being educators. This is not the way we do education in Arkansas I know that the personal ideology that has been feeding the anger in our country, primarily focused on COVID-19, has made it extra dif cult to perform your duties. Some travel from district to district, spreading propaganda and divisiveness in person and through social media. These actions served no purpose other than to provoke already tired and angry community members to vent that anger on their community school. Behavior and actions such as these have contributed to an unsafe feeling in some of our schools. We must set a better example for our children and ensure that feelings of anxiety are removed from the learning environment for all students and staff Some believe the angry approach seems to be the rule of successful debate these days. This mindset needs to stop so that we do not further harm our children and their ability to receive the education they deserve. If our communities act in anger, we will have lost sight of the value of each other's contribution to the educational process. Community schools are a safe place for educational opportunities to happen for our children. The school district is typically the largest employer in many communities across the state, and we must do what we can to keep our schools open. Closed schools will harm our society due to further limiting an already struggling workforce pipeline My appeal to our members is to continue to stand up for your school by ensuring that every effort is made to keep schools emotionally and physically safe for staff and students. We must do this with the civility and patience good administrators are known for. Re ect on and promote the value of your school in your community for students and for the health, economic viability, and sense of pride we have when rallying around our kids and their accomplishments. Arkansas cannot afford to lose educational leaders, educators, and community supporters who serve to meet our children's needs because they can no longer endure working in a toxic environment. School leaders like you were built for this, and we are all blessed because of that fact. As always, we are here for you.
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