By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



More than 50 teachers had a chance to voice their concerns Thursday night, with a state senator as their sounding board.

Sen. Scott Beason, R-17th, took part in a teachers’ town hall meeting at Decatur Highway Church of Christ in Gardendale.

Organized by the Alabama Education Association (AEA) and the Jefferson County Education Association (JCEA), the purpose of the gathering was to “give teachers a voice at the state level regarding issues that affect the classroom daily,” according to Jocelyn Schilling, AEA UniServ director for District 28.

Although Beason was primarily interested in issues that teachers were facing in their classrooms, he did, at the request of Schilling, spend a few minutes explaining the reason he voted no on Amendment 1.

Amendment 1, which passed in the Nov. 4 election, provided more money to schools with school systems facing proration and cutbacks.

But Beason’s concern was where the money was coming from — oil and gas trust funds — and the fact that the money now must be paid back.

The amendment allows the Alabama Education Trust Fund to borrow up to $435 million from oil and gas royalties. The money must be repaid within six years.

“We were passing a budget that was way out of whack,” Beason said. “We will have problems in the future (because the amendment passed). We’re going to have some financial problems because of that.”

Schilling said that she and Beason have sharply disagreed on several matters, but that she respects him for voting his conscience.

“He votes what he thinks is best right here,” she said with her hand over her heart. “He votes what he thinks is morally best.”

Among the top issues that teachers wanted to talk about Thursday were the new reading series in elementary schools, discipline problems at all levels of public schools and issues with special education.

Some teachers hate the new series, the Reading Street series by publisher Scott Foresman.

In July, an estimated 700 Jefferson County teachers attended a conference at Fultondale Elementary School to learn how to implement the series.

While some teachers said the series offers no flexibility, other teachers at Thursday’s meeting said it worked well in their schools.

“It’s really the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” said one teacher who has 17 years of classroom experience.

According to Schilling, 86 percent of Alabama public schools have adopted the reading series.

As for discipline, teachers told nightmarish stories of the steps they must take in order to discipline elementary students.

A high-school teacher told of a student who threatened a teacher’s life. He will be returning to school soon and the young teacher is thinking about quitting her job because of it.

Thursday’s meeting was not to solve problems, but rather to make Beason aware of day-to-day issues that teachers face in hopes that he will remember them when casting votes in the Alabama State Senate.

Kimberly Johnson, vice president of the JCEA, said Beason had been more than willing to trade dialogue with the teachers.

“This is opening up a line of communication between us,” said Johnson, who is also a fifth-grade reading teacher at Chalkville Elementary School. “We hope he takes that back to Montgomery and spreads the word about the problems we have here.”