Editor: 

Regarding Dr. Platter’s laughable defense of the HUSD salary structure (Nov. 27), I don’t imagine she is dim so I can only marvel at her cynicism. She is well aware that no decent teacher spends only the “contract hours” in the classroom. She and the members of the board know quite well the chaos that would ensue if their teachers spent only six hours each day at school. They are transparently taking advantage of the professionalism of their staff, secure in the knowledge that these teaching professionals will put in the hours needed to properly do their job regardless of their “contact hours.”

I am intimately acquainted with one of their teachers, a teacher of the year, who spends at least nine hours each day in the classroom. This is not counting many weekend hours spent grading work or preparing units both at home and in the classroom, nor the several hundreds of dollars spent out of her earnings on classroom supplies and enrichment materials.

It is exactly the lack of respect shown in Platter’s inflammatory comments that has driven this situation to its current impasse, and that has turned educators into activists. Our children deserve better and we taxpayers would far rather support respectable pay for our teachers than to continue to support a bloated administration.

Turn some of those inflated district salaries into compensation for the dedicated teachers doing the hard work of educating the future of our country.

Mark Salter
Fern Valley