Of course it's about the money!

Denver news anchor: on average $100,000 a year.
Well-known Denver meteorologist: $400,000 a year.
Well-known Denver news anchors: $500,000-$700,000 a year.

Denver Bronco's coach: $3.5 million a year plus a one million dollar bonus for winning Super Bowl.
Well-known Colorado Rockies player: $45 million to $118 million from 2008-2020.
Peyton Manning: $96 million over five years.
Governor of Colorado: $90,000 a year.

Superintendent of largest Colorado school district: $220,000 a year plus $60,000 in bonus money and retirement benefits.
Jeffco high school principals: $91,182 to 126,768 a year.
Jeffco Sheriffs: $69,000 (average) a year.
Average teacher salary (with 10 years teaching experience and a B.A. plus 20): $50,000 a year.

Granted, no teachers can throw like the Bronco's quarterback, or field like the Rockies player. We don't make between $100,000 to $700,000 a year sitting at an anchor desk. But to see the average teacher salary in Jeffco at $50,000 is a travesty. It's not wonder younger teachers often take second jobs to make ends meet.

What bothers me most is the perception of a Jeffco teacher as "greedy" and "selfish" for wanting respect and decent pay. The current Board of Education is not interested in either respecting teachers nor paying them a living and sustainable wage. Instead, the Board majority is more interested in blaming teachers for 'not working with them' or in 'using students to further their cause.'

The Board majority neglects the facts: JCEA and the BoE negotiated a financial agreement in April, which the teachers ratified. The Board majority refused to honor the tentative agreement, which meant Union reps refused to negotiate further, asking instead for a mediator. The district and the union each paid half to a Factfinder to help solve this problem. When the Factfinder was finished, the results were no surprise: they found the evaluative process was unfair and needed to be revised before BoE could tie our pay to our evaluations. Additionally,Human Resources suggested not implementing a pay-for-performance plan, and the new superintendent also suggested not implementing their pay plan as it would potentially reduce morale and prevent teachers for applying to our district. Within minutes, the BoE called for a vote, and not surprisingly, it passed 3-2.

I am amazed that teachers are trusted with our most valuable people-children-and no one wants to pay us for what we do! Instead, we are 'selfish' and 'greedy' because we want to earn a living wage. Our job is as important as any listed above. We might not be entertaining, but we spend a great deal of time working with and for our students. We grade on weekends and after hours; we answer their emails nights and weekends; we stay after school and work with them. We counsel, advise, plan, and do the best work we can do.

And we aren't worth paying a decent wage for our level of education and experience?

We should be ashamed.