I have been out of the loop recently because of this flu season. My family has been hit hard. Follow that up with a miserable allergy season and pollen counts that are through the roof. And finally top that off with sporadic internet connectivity and you get intermittent posts from me. Please accept my apologies.
I need to update you with some proposals for budget reductions to the Hillsborough County School district.
I want you to share your thoughts. We are currently in contract negotiations and some of the proposals are negotiated contract items so I can't discuss them. But please let me know your feelings and experiences.
View the proposal here post your opinions. I am listening.
10 comments:
1. Each person who makes more than $100,000 per year should have a 10% salary reduction.
2. Since the School Board position is political, the SB should have a 10% cut in salary.
3. DO NOT cut the formerly retired teachers who have come back to the system. Either by reducing their salaries to 1st year salaries or eliminating their expetise all together. Perhaps a 10% cut for them but, NOT all the way back to first year salary.
Do NOT impose a four day school week with longer hours!!! Teachers are already stretched beyond belief from the 6/7 debacle. Longer days would be a disaster. Ask ANY teacher--except those who get to nap in the middle of the day with their kids. Every teacher I know barely makes it that 8th period--being "on" one more hour--I have to just about tap dance and I teach an elective where students WANT to be. I can't imagine trying to teach English(excuse, me, Springboard) one more hour. All of the problems with 6/7 will only be exacerbated. The education of our students WILL suffer--that money will cost immeasurably more than any savings.
Art is something that is always overlooked, or not given its due. It allows children to express themselves in ways no other forum could. It allows the shy child to reach out and "Say" something that they wouldn't normally do. It helps them express hopes, fears, dreams and aspirations. When a child can create something with the help of their Art Teacher, they get that sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Art enables developing minds to explore and challenges them to push thier creativity. I remember every single art teacher that I had!
I wish we didn't have to realign staffing formula for Art, Music, Physical Education, Strings and Elementary Foreign Language
teachers. These are very importnat items.
Lets eliminate all the performance payments such as MAP, Superintendent's bonuses for Advanced Placement classes, Administrator's and teachers bonuses for A level schools.
Make all performance bonuses demonstrate that the additional funds actually accomplish the intended purpose by furnishing data that the recipient actually did something different to earn the bonus. Require portfolios and evidence of administrator observation not just a yearly evaluation. Actually get what you pay for and use that information to improve teaching and learning across the county.
I heartily approve realigning formulas for Guidance Counselors, Career Specialists and we even have a "Testing Specialist"!!!! We sure could use a couple more teaching positions--and aren't Guidance Counselors at the high school level supposed to be "counseling" on college and career coices???????
Thanks for asking for our input!
Eliminating almost 200 experienced retired (many still quite young) teachers and replacing them with low-paid, inexperienced teachers will have a serious impact on educational quality throughout this county. It's a horrifically stupid idea and I pray that you do not move forward with it. At a minimum, take it on a case-by-case basis and decide on the merits of a teacher's value, field, impact on the school, etc. This rash, across-the-board termination of so many teachers, many of whom are extraordinary educators, is unacceptable.
What does the Kindergarten aide savings mean? Are they eliminating those aides? That would be another extreme hardship on teachers who, at that grade level, have their hands more than full just keeping 5-year-olds focused. They need those aides to keep things moving and orderly.
Schools are having a hard enough time scheduling PE, Art and Music without cramming more sessions into a day. Because of the already less-than-ideal scheduling of these specials, my child's teacher is having a hard time "wedging" her curriculum into the school day between them.
Of all my above concerns, however, the greatest and most far-reaching is the termination of DROP and otherwise retired teachers. It is overbroad, punitive, and seriously detrimental to the quality of education in Hillsborough County. My child's school will lose BOTH of their AGP (gifted) teachers. In speaking with the director of the County's AGP program, I learned that they will likely be replaced with an out-of-field, non-certified Gifted teacher who will have two years to meet the educational requirements to teach my child. My daughter should not have to suffer through two years of unskilled, out-of-field instruction from teachers not qualified to teach her. PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS!
Can't we cut MAP? The whole system pits teacher against teacher. Gen. ed don't want the ESE students anymore because they typically score lower on assessments. Teachers begin every year fighting for higher achieving students who show progress. ELL and ESE students are not wanted and teachers go as far as begging administration to not have them.
Therefore-teacher with an "in" with administration get students more likely to deliver the bonus.
The formula, while better than the first year, is still not fair to all teachers and doesn't really measure which teachers are more effective than others.
That being said-I did get MAP both years and teachers I feel to be superior to me, did not. I do not get a choice of students however, because I teach ESE.
All the focus on the cuts for retired teachers is interesting.
These teachers chose to enter Drop, locking their retirement date in. Any District employee knows that there is no guarantee that you can return after retirement.
These teachers did not mind when their pension accrual rate jumped from 1.6%/yr to 6.6%/yr under the Drop program.
They also did not complain when they got their Drop Bonus on their retirement day.
They don't mind collecting their pension checks along with their district pay check following retirement and rehire.
They played the system and now want to return like they never retired. In my opinion this is just another form of double dipping.
It is not fiscally responsible for the District to provide a benefit as significant as Drop (Yes, the financial benenfit is huge to Drop recipients.) only to rehire them at the same rate of pay. Talk about a sweet deal!
Posters on this very site were outraged by some of the School Board member's double dipping. Where is the outrage when teachers game the system in the same way?
I also note alot of grumbling about what the School Board makes.
Comparisons have been made to a starting teacher's salary stating that the Board Members make more than a starting teacher... they conveniently quote the starting salary for a 10 month teaching position.
When compared to a 12 month starting teacher's salary (The School Board is a 12 month position) of approximately $43,000 they make less than a first year teacher.
April, I hope you can respond to the anonymous poster who obviously doesn't understand "DROP."
1) Where did this individual get the 1.6 to 6.6% increase in retirement?
2) DROP was something created by the legislature to reward long term employees who had been working for a long time for low wages.
3) Employees who are in DROP actually saved the SB some money because the SB did not pay into FRS for those 5 years.
4) Double-Dipping implies taking money from the same source. DROP employees are paid retirement money by FRS, a state agency. They are also paid for working and contributing to the school system by SDHC.
5) I am pretty sure Bret Favre was paid by the football team that hired him after he "retired."
6) I will anxiously await the law suit that will most likely happen when a teacher from Ohio retires, moves to Florida and applies for a job. Only to find out that the Florida retiree will be able to undercut the salary and get the job because of the way SDHC has written the rules. The Ohio teacher would have been paid as a 30 year teacher, but, the Florida teacher, having retired, will be paid as a 5 year teacher.
7) Oh yeah, two of the SB members in Hillsborough county are also "Double-Dipping."
8) I have suggested this before. All politicians and people working at tax dollar paid jobs should take a 10% cut in pay until this crisis is over. Lee Iococca took a $1 paycheck when he restructured Chrysler a few years back. An employee making $140,000 a year is going to be able to pay for more basic needs on $126,000 than a custodian who loses his/her $10,000 a year job and goes on welfare.
9) There are not many 12 month 1st year teachers. There are however a bunch of 12 month employees called "administrators."
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