Dear Iowa Legislators...

Dear Legislators,

I am choosing to write this statement from a perplexed position. I am a parent, an educator, and school and community leader. Each of these positions brings about a variety of emotions as I look at the current state of education within the state of Iowa and the barrage of attacks that I see are taking place. I wish I could compartmentalize how I feel in each of these categories, but I cannot. While a parent I am also an educator and leader, as a leader I am also a parent and educator, and so on. I cannot simply take one hat off and put another one on and respond accordingly. I tell you this because this statement is going to be an emotional one for me to write.

I have been a lifelong Iowan. I have loved my state. As an aspiring educator I was beyond pumped when our state quarter showcased a one-room school house and professed our excellence in education as something all Iowan’s took pride in. This simply isn’t true anymore and some of your colleagues, while trying to speak out of both sides of their mouths have shown us this through their actions and sadly through their words within the confines of our capitol building.

So far, just this year, we have had legislators and state leaders accuse educators of having sinister agendas, flip off patrons of the state underneath the golden dome, blame a school shooting on our schools saying they are not doing enough to keep kids in their walls, and have continuously passed legislation that has underfunded and put more burdens upon our schools.

My wife (a fellow educator) and I have had tear filled discussions about what we are going to do as we work to make the best decisions for our children and careers. Their teachers and our staff are[]\ stressed. There is more getting added to their plates and less funding to provide additional support to help them do their jobs. There are constantly new threats of pulling their licenses as they navigate the waters of just trying to do what is best for kids based on their extensive training and coursework that they have completed. Eventually though, their amazing teachers will say enough is enough and leave the profession, and I cannot blame them.

I am too financially committed to this career, and quite frankly, care too much about kids to leave education. Unfortunately this means we are looking outside of the state, and many others will too. If we want our schools to be beacons of the message of our state quarter, with all due respect, get the hell out of our way and let us make the differences that we see are needed. Fund us at a level that will allow us to attract and retain the best teachers in the nation while also continuing to add additional programming and opportunities for our students. This is happening in other states and they are leaving Iowa behind as we continue to drown under unfunded mandate after unfunded mandate.

In February I was approached to run for office against one of you. At first I laughed at it. I pride myself in being a person that will be incredibly outspoken and a constant advocate for public education in our state but I had never considered running for office. Then I started to think about my kids and how by the time they are in high school the district they are in may not be able to find a teacher to be in the room with them. How they already are facing an uphill battle with mental health challenges that they and their peers face while being taught by teachers that are currently unpacking their own traumas with little support and relief to be offered. I think about how my kids’ teachers may now have to live in fear of being reported to the state for forgetting to update a lesson with an additional artifact that was used and how that may limit their creativity in offering the best lessons possible. This is not the Iowa I grew up in and not the Iowa I want for my kids so I changed my mind and heavily considered running. I began to file my paperwork and was ready to get the required signatures but the stars didn’t align for me at this time. Had this not been my first year in a new role and position and had I been able to get more support in place and things going in the district I lead, I would be running right now as we speak.

I would be running on the platform of simply making our public schools the best they possibly could be by bringing people together and not driving a wedge between neighbors and community members. I have done this my whole career as a teacher working through conflicts with two students that got into a fight, by bringing teachers and parents together to develop the best plans possible for their students, and also by bringing our community and schools together to get behind supporting our staff and all the work that they do even when things are uncertain or have no true right answer. My goal, if I were running, would be to calm the rhetoric and find true solutions to issues facing our schools, not make up new ones. I would encourage constituents with issues with their schools to go through the right channels, follow the board policies already on the book, and to keep an open mind while working to find the best solution locally as opposed to legislating for a whole state.

I want to start to close this by simply asking you to do better. Do better for our teachers. Do better for our students. Do better for our schools and communities that rely on them to be the glue that holds them together. Get out and about in our schools. Talk with our teachers, staff, and students. Not for a photo opportunity or to only talk with like minded people, but because you actually care about making a difference in their lives by the decisions that you make. If you are unwilling to do these things, get out of being a state leader. As Iowans, we deserve this.

Leaders lead. They do not dictate. As a school leader my job would be easy to dictate. To make rules up as I go, have other people enforce them, and just sit in my office and think about the next solution I have to a problem I think exists… but what I have to do as a leader is the complete opposite. It means being in the trenches. It is talking and communicating the why behind things and not for a small group or the loudest. It is seeking first to understand, and then to be understood. It is explaining what we already have in place and how adding additional rules doesn't really change anything except for adding more to someone’s plate. It is listening to all and responding, even if I may disagree with some of what they say.

This past year my leadership skills and practices were challenged as we looked to adopt a new calendar. Our staff has been and continues to struggle with finding time to complete the work they need to within their contract hours. There are no subs so they have consistently given up their prep time to cover for each other. We also have numerous initiatives and things that we need to put in place for professional development to continue to get better at what we do for our students and community. This will all take time. Something we don’t have more of. We also don’t have the funds to compensate for the additional time that this is all going to take. This coupled with the immense challenge of recruiting and retaining teachers had me looking at and considering a 4 day calendar. I could see the tremendous benefits. I had worked in this environment through our covid year as an Elementary Principal in Maquoketa, and saw the great successes of our students and staff. If I wanted to dictate what I felt was right, I would have just pushed to get that approved. Instead I led. I listened. My inbox was open, surveys were collected, feedback was requested numerous times, I tried to educate staff, students, parents and community on both sides and pros and cons of various calendars. I held a town hall, open work session, and was in the buildings during conferences for feedback. We had about 50% of our stakeholder groups support it and 50% were against it. So as a leader, I compromised. I listened to both sides. We adopted a calendar that adds more time for our staff, lets us dip our toes into a 4 day week once per month, and will allow us time to assess the impact of a big decision and what as a district we can do to support the new things that we are going to put on our staff, student, and community’s plates. Response to this has been positive.

This will have to go out the window if HF 2577 or the transparency bill passes that requires our teachers to post ALL content and continuously update their materials used. They will need time to constantly alter and ensure they have everything included as they will be driven by the fear of breaking a law that wasn’t needed. We have open lines of communication right now with our parents. ANY of them can come and talk to our teachers, principals, or myself. ANY of them can come in and see our curriculum. We work with them if they have concerns and address them as needed,not because there is a law, but because we want to be on a team with them. This bill doesn’t support that, it encourages people to circumvent the chain of communication and go straight to reporting, to trying to catch a teacher in the wrong. Witch hunting will most definitely happen if a student and a teacher don’t get along or if a parent who had the same teacher wants to get even about something they felt wronged about a decade ago. These things will happen and over burden our Department of Education and have teachers teaching scared. To counteract this fear and new addition of stress, all of that work of listening to our community, teachers, parents, and students about our calendar will have to go out the window as the only way we can provide more time will be to put it into the week. We won't have the ability to ease into a 4 day week and make calculated decisions about child care and how to help get meals to kids on the day off. When our parents and community ask why this is needed it will be because I need to ensure that my staff is able to be the best they can be and by adding more and not giving them time to do it they will burn out and leave or quit the profession altogether. I won't be able to find a replacement to come to Wyoming and teach our amazing kids as finding teachers is already tough as hell.

I will tell parents and our community that for me to take care of our staff and students that this is what we need to do, but it is because of your actions as legislators. This will be on you.

When they can’t find childcare on the day off for students are you going to step up to the plate and help them? Or are you just going to be in the business of creating solutions to problems that don’t exist only to create problems you have no solutions to and will blame on schools anyway?

For the sake of current and future Iowans, be a Leader! If you need some help in seeing what that looks like, I can point you in the direction of many public school leaders that do a stellar job day in and day out despite the stress and magnitude of additional work you put on their plates with the decisions that you make.

As always, the invite is always open to visit the schools I lead. I would welcome any opportunity to sit down with you and discuss your ideas and policies and how I see them affecting schools both short term and long term. I want to be an ally of yours, not an enemy but to do this, we need to find common ground and keep open minds. You name the time and place, and I will do all I can to make it happen.

While this may seem like a lot. This was my version of being Iowa Nice.

My son tells his mother and I all the time that he wants to be a teacher or a librarian. While my father who was an elementary principal actively attempted to get me to go into a different field of study, (he failed as his daughter, daughter in-law, and son are all educators) I encourage my son to follow his dreams if that is what he wants to do. When you ask him why it's because he wants to help kids. He has the kindest heart and does all he can to help others. He raised money for the U of I Stead Family Children’s Hospital through a bake sale a couple years ago because a classmate of his was there. He circulates his current classroom doing what he can to assist the kids that are struggling. At 8 years old he is a natural and I would love nothing more for him to be amongst the next generation of Iowa educators.

This is why I am writing to you. I will start here and continue to amplify my voice to advocate for him. Advocate for the kids that want to grow up to enter a profession that currently is being driven out and looked down upon. I will fight for the teachers that currently work with him, his peers, and all of the students in my district and throughout the state to ensure that they know they have people and leaders in their corner. I will fight for Iowa in every way possible so that when people see our quarter they don’t have to think that Iowa used to be for education, but is and always will be.

Actions speak louder than words. Do Better and Let your actions speak to educators of our state and especially in our area of the state to show them that you see them and you are listening to them. Their eyes are one you. Their family’s eyes are on you. Their community’s eyes are on you. All are expecting you to lead and not dictate.

-Caleb Bonjour