For the Saugus Union School District this is Parent-Teacher Conference week.

It’s normal that students might be weak-in-the-knees about having a bad report from the teacher, but what’s abnormal this year are the buttons teachers will be wearing.

They read: “You can’t put students first when budgets put teachers last.”

The buttons were distributed to the school sites by the Saugus Teachers Association (STA), for teachers to wear throughout the day and during conferences. The goal is to let the community know what’s happening with the budget.

“The governor’s budget and his initiatives are putting education last. They’re not making it a priority. And that’s the bottom line, they need to make education a priority,” said STA President, Debbie Rocha.

The buttons are just part of the outreach this week.

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STA is asking teachers to wear pink at school on Thursday to support fellow teachers who received pink slips (officially known as Reduction in Force notices). Thursday also happens to be the day before all teachers are taking a forced furlough day. Some teachers will be losing their jobs, while others will have their paychecks lighter. Technically, the teachers voted “overwhelmingly” to take the furlough days to save the district money.

STA is also asking teachers to write “multiple letters” to legislators requesting full funding for education. Those letters will be hand delivered by the Saugus Union School District board when they visit Sacramento next week.

Rocha says local representatives say they support education but haven’t been in support of a tax to pay for it. That she insists will have to change.

“When the constituents speak loudly and say this is what we want for our community I guess they’ll have to look at the world differently won’t they?”