We are the Lawton teachers, staff, and paraprofessionals, and most of us live paycheck to paycheck trying to make a lasting impact on the children in our community. We work outside of contract hours, weekends, and evenings to ensure we are doing our best to continue to educate the youth. Unfortunately, our district has not been fully staffed, which means 6,000-12,000 students go without consistent classroom teachers and support staff each year. With new budget cuts, it is important now more than ever that we stand up for what is right and ensure our classrooms are fully staffed and supported.

We also need to be paid a living wage. We are losing teachers every year, and now with our healthcare costing us more, our healthcare can now be 40% of our paycheck, which will impact living wages even more!

Even though SFUSD has said they don't have any money for raises, they do have a "rainy day fund" that contains between 50 to 70 million dollars that would well cover our raises and have funds left over.

My name is Becca Beltramo, but I am known by students as Ms. Becca third grade teacher at Lawton. We are hoping to use the funds we receive to give each of our paras and support staff money to help get them through the month and anything left would be circulated to our certificated staff who are in most need. I will personally make sure that the funds are dispersed as cash to the beneficiaries who need it the most to make ends meet during this uncertain time.

Please consider helping us to donate to our living wages while we strike for the basic needs that we so deserve. While we strike we need some help to cover the cost of food and other basic supplies to get us through this time. Thank you so much for reading and considering supporting us!