Good Evening Dr. Evans and Members of the School Board.

My name is Dawn Dion and I am the library media specialist at E. W. Flynn School. I am here tonight as an advocate for the students of E. W. Flynn School. Our students arrive at our school each day eager to learn, counting on all of the adults at Flynn to provide them with a safe and healthy learning environment. But, instead, as they enter for breakfast they find a cafeteria/gymnasium with a swollen hump in the floor, and remnants of trash and food stuck in the cracks and corners of the floor. Yes, the physical education teachers have alerted the principal about the situation, and yes Aramark supervisors have been informed, but we are told that the custodial workers are understaffed and the custodial staff we do have is working as hard as they can with the resources they have. And the dirt continues to pack into the corners and cracks. The mops heads need to be replaced. The smell of sour milk lingers. The supervisor is aware, and yet we wait for new mop heads.

As the students enter the main area of the building they often climb stairs littered with candy wrappers, sunflower seeds and lost homework from days past. Teachers often sweep and mop floors before they begin their day teaching students. The heat in the building can be suffocating. There seems to be no temperature control. Either the heat is ON or it is OFF. Teachers, in desperation, open windows wasting precious resources. The office staff runs their air conditioner through the winter to combat the heat. In the past two years there have been at least three grievances concerning the heat in the building at Flynn School. I have a letter dated September 5, 2007 from Dr. Ramirez stating that the uni vents were scheduled to be cleaned and stream traps replaced by October 15th. As of December 4th, the steam traps have not been replaced and the uni vents have not been cleaned. In addition, the students' bathrooms are a disgrace. The girls' room on the second floor has 7 stalls. The 6th stall with doors has inoperable latches. The one handicap stall has no door; please refer to the pictures Ms. Sasken has handed you. The inoperable latches have been shown to the principal who reported that the door latches would be repaired by November 30th and yet no repairs have been made to date. The water fountain on the second floor has warm brown water. No one seems to hear our cries for help. The teachers' room on the second floor has a steam leak. We reported it to the principal the day it started. I personally watched the principal call and report the problem to maintenance and now, a month later the tiles under the leak are lifting and the job grows. Next there will be water leaking through the ceiling below and the job will be bigger. A month has passed and people have been in to assess the problem - nothing is done.

We had an incident on October 24th when a parent came storming into a classroom through the open back doors. Teachers requested a Corby key lock be provided for the back entrance of our school so we can close the door behind us and no-one else can enter our building. At the November SIT we were told the lock was ordered. The lock has not been installed. During recess, at the beginning of the day and at dismissal doors are often left open. How can we claim to keep students safe?

What message are we sending our students at Flynn with the lack of attention to their basic needs? How can we expect them to follow the three rules we embrace at Flynn: Respect, Responsibility and Safety. We do not show them respect by allowing them to come to a school in such disrepair. How can we say they are safe? How can we claim to be responsible if we, as their role models and teachers do nothing to improve the conditions of our building? Please do not ignore our students and our staff at Flynn school. We are bringing these issues to your attention in hopes of getting the help we need to provide a clean, healthy learning environment to the students we serve. Please come to our school and see what teachers must endure each day before we can teach and see the school through the eyes of our students.

Thank you for your time-
Dawn Dion