It’s Teacher Appreciation Week, so the West Linn Tidings reached out to the West Linn-Wilsonville Education Association and asked how to support local educators as they deal with budget cuts and other challenges.

West Linn High School social studies teacher and West Linn Wilsonville Education Association President Matt Bell answered some Teacher Appreciation Week questions by email. Some answers have been edited for clarity.

West Linn Tidings: Each year students want to show appreciation for their teachers, but I was wondering how families and community members could show support for all teachers this year?

Matt Bell: I think the biggest ways are: (A) just saying thank you and noticing teachers who are going above and beyond and have really made a difference for their kids. There are a lot of teachers impacted by layoffs who are reconsidering the profession, there are veteran teachers near retirement who feel deflated. (B), advocacy and showing up. There need to be lots of parents at every legislator’s townhall. They need to hear from voters that the current projected statewide budget is not OK.

Tidings: Is there an area of statewide advocacy, whether that be calling legislators and knocking on doors, that you think can support teachers this session?

Bell: I would say at this point, calling legislators and showing up to in-person events is the best. We’re getting close to the June 30 budget deadline, so if momentum is not building, better funding won’t happen. Some are starting to get the urgency of the budget, but several are not and need to hear from parents about the impact on individual students.

Tidings: How can kids get involved in supporting teachers?

Bell: Kids can write legislators too but should only do so if they want to. We’ve had a lot of parent groups who send student letters with the parent letters.

Tidings: What do you think you learn from your colleagues? How are you showing appreciation for your peers?

Bell: I really really really love all my colleagues. From people I eat lunch with every day to my department to people I just see briefly in passing, educators are checking in with people as best we can. When I first came to West Linn, I blitzed to the library to get a cart, knowing I would go from room to room as the new person. However, the whole school is set up to where the most times a teacher moves is once. It’s a shared sacrifice across everyone. Everyone also is flexible on their classes taught in order to help share the burden and make sure that no one has too many preps. Veteran leadership set this up and the new teachers share those values and have continued a supportive culture.