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18 <br /> improvement team is eye-opening because teachers don't make much money. She said the <br /> budget is strategic and lean and is focused on creating positions that can best care for student <br /> needs. She said she sees the challenges teachers are facing and understands why they <br /> wouldn't continue doing this work. She said she understands how organizations can get into a <br /> death spiral when there is continued understaffing and asking people to do more. She said it's <br /> about investing now vs. letting things spiral into a greater crisis later. She said it was great to <br /> see the budget presentation, but if you average out the proposed per pupil increase <br /> recommended for this year with the lack of an increase the past two years, this increase isn't <br /> that big. She said she would rather the issues be addressed now than have a crisis later. <br /> Molly Beak said she is a teacher at a Title 1 school in Chapel Hill and also has family <br /> members who were educators. She said she loves her job and wouldn't do anything else, but <br /> she sees people in other jobs, administration, decision-makers, etc. throw up their hands and <br /> say there just isn't money, supplies, and resources, while teachers have to go in and face <br /> students every day. She said teachers can't throw up their hands because they have to face the <br /> students every day. She said she understands the Commissioners have to make hard <br /> decisions, but asked them to imagine if they had to walk into a classroom the next day. She <br /> said she only has three students who speak English at home and got 5 new students between <br /> Thanksgiving and Christmas, including 2 from Afghanistan who had been in refugee camps. <br /> She said she didn't throw up her hands, she got to work and all of her students have grown. <br /> She said teachers have to continue to do their job every day no matter what they are given, and <br /> then have to beg for more pay. She said the only time she throws up her hands is when her <br /> own child wants something and she tells him it will have to wait until the end of the month. She <br /> said she loves her job and wants to continue to do it, and asked the Commissioners to imagine <br /> that they have to go into a classroom and tell students why they made the decisions they did. <br /> Hope Love said she is a theater teacher at East Chapel Hill High School, married to a <br /> science teacher, and has a child who attended elementary school in CHCCS. She said she was <br /> going to discuss a metaphor. She said there is a lot of equivocating and debate in her <br /> household. She said she asked her son to do something on Mother's Day and he explained to <br /> her that it wasn't a job for him and it was too hard. She said her husband told their son that his <br /> mother does things he asks her to all the time without explaining how she gets it done and <br /> instead of gifts, she needs his help when she rarely asks. She said educators have asked. <br /> Auburn James said she is a science teacher at East Chapel Hill High School, and it is <br /> her 7t" year teaching. She said her third year of teaching was the best year, which was also <br /> when she started working at East Chapel Hill High School, and felt like she won the lottery <br /> getting to work in CHCCS. She said that this year has been the worst of her career and is <br /> working 3 times harder than any time before to make up for learning loss from last year. She <br /> said she has held over 30 evening virtual office hours for her students to give them extra help <br /> and prepare them for AP exams. She said she can't keep working like this without <br /> appreciation. She said the rate of inflation is causing her grocery bill to go up. She said she <br /> doesn't know if she can afford to be a teacher anymore. She said she doesn't have a spouse's <br /> income and she pays her own mortgage. She said she wants to continue doing her job for her <br /> students and colleagues who deserve her best and asked the Board to fully fund the CHCCS <br /> budget request. <br /> A motion was made by Commissioner McKee and seconded by Commissioner Richards <br /> to close the public hearing. <br /> VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br />