They teach Chinese at my son's school. The is one of the most wonderful things ever. If it takes going to China to get the best teachers, the so be it. It is money well spent.
That last time he sent a team to China to look for teachers of Chinese. He found none and hired someone already living in Indianapolis. This is nothing but a taxpayer paid vacation for some of his buddies.
If it's true, I think it is outrageous! Surely whatever information IPS needs from China could be received via phone or Internet, no? Even if we weren't broke, trips to China would be an unnecessary expense for the district, in my opinion, but given that we ARE broke, that would make it that much more obscene. That said, I certainly don't believe it's true just because IPS B.S. posted it.
Actually it was Taiwan and it was at the expense of the Taiwanese government as part of an exchange program. Taiwanese school leaders came and toured our school and invited some of our principals to come and do the same- on their dime. There is also a program in the works to exchange some students. Some of us at our school have volunteered to house the students.
Yes, four or more Taiwanese principals came last year and toured not only school 15 but many other IPS school districts.
Students in my class have already begun exchanging newsletters, cards, emails, and projects with their students. My students really are enjoying this new opportunity for them.
If you would like to view some wonderful pictures, visit School 15's website and you can actually see the Taiwanese Principals visiting students in my class and in our school. Guess what, it was paid at their expense.
They came to learn from IPS schools and programs on last year to share with their schools and this year they (Taiwan ROC) paid for our principals to visit them and to learn at their expense again.
We will hopefully have some of their students and teacher(s) in the near future come to us and hopefully we can go and teach for them for a year.
So why the negative comments? If it was a Greenfield, Boonville, Martinsville, etc. school district with this opportunity, we would not be reading the negative comments once again.
Any educator/person in their right mind would consider it an opportunity to visit partner schools in other countires.
I'm a teacher at School 15 and I agreed to partner with a family when the come also. What is the big deal? What a great learning experience for all students involved. Next topic!
Personally the information regarding School 15 and the Taiwan exchange is enlightening. Thanks for sharing, it's too bad some people strive only on pettiness and viciousness. The same people make the same comments about the same schools/administrators time and time again.
Seriously, Chinese has been offered for nearly two decades at #34. Joe Bryant wrote a state foreign language grant, and was far ahead of our time with both foreign language and technology.
He earned a Lilly Fellowship to tour China, and his 25-foot long paper-mache dragon is probably still in use each winter (if it survived the move).
Most employers negotiate with a company to get the best deal for their employees 403B accounts. I assume that is the case here. My Valic account has done very well. I am not unhappy with them at all.
By AMOS BROWN III Published: Thursday, February 4, 2010 11:38 AM EST The Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners voted last week to accept Superintendent Dr. Eugene White’s recommendation granting raises to four highly paid IPS administrators.
The School Board also voted to grant the superintendent a three percent raise.
Both actions by the IPS School Board were wrong.
The Indianapolis Public Schools aren’t Microsoft, Wal-Mart or Warren Buffett’s company. IPS, like nearly every school district in Indiana and many nationwide, and like many non-profits and for-profit entities, is facing severe economic pressures and stresses.
Indiana property tax caps are negatively impacting IPS’ transportation and maintenance budgets. And IPS’ loss of thousands of students in recent years, plus the Great Recession’s impact on state government revenues, has IPS facing between $20-$30 million in funding shortfalls.
IPS dodged scores of teacher layoffs this school year because of the one-time injection of federal stimulus money. This coming school year, IPS won’t be as fortunate.
IPS’ layoffs impact newer, younger teachers – many with the thrill and desire to teach using techniques and methods that engage today’s MTV/BET, Facebook, Wii-oriented, texting-tested students.
White said the four veteran IPS administrators deserved raises, pushing their salaries around $100,000 because they were taking on more responsibility.
Speaking Monday on WTLC-AM1310’s “Afternoons with Amos,” IPS Board President Michael Brown said the four administrators didn’t receive “raises.” Instead they were moving to “a different job responsibility with a different (higher) authorized salary.”
That may be true, but its semantics are not relevant to today’s economic realities.
How many of you reading this took on more responsibility at your job? Did you get a raise for that? If you’re like me and most Americans and Hoosiers, the answer is no.
When times were good, raises like those OK’d by IPS were fine. When times are hard, they’re an insult!
Board President Brown and White say that the other school districts pay their administrators more money. That keeping up with the Jones’ mentality doesn’t fly in these tough economic times.
In his State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama called out the nation’s colleges and universities, urging them to show restraint in their tuition and costs.
Our public schools should show the same restraint. In this era of tight school budgets, school administrations and school boards should show leadership and freeze administrative salaries and if the budget woes are tough, roll some of those salaries back until the fiscal crisis passes.
The media industry, including the media I work for, have had salaries and raises frozen, even rolled back to weather the economic storm. If we in media can do it, so can those in education.
They teach Chinese at my son's school. The is one of the most wonderful things ever. If it takes going to China to get the best teachers, the so be it. It is money well spent.
ReplyDeleteEnough with the whining and excuses.
That last time he sent a team to China to look for teachers of Chinese. He found none and hired someone already living in Indianapolis. This is nothing but a taxpayer paid vacation for some of his buddies.
ReplyDeleteIf it's true, I think it is outrageous! Surely whatever information IPS needs from China could be received via phone or Internet, no? Even if we weren't broke, trips to China would be an unnecessary expense for the district, in my opinion, but given that we ARE broke, that would make it that much more obscene. That said, I certainly don't believe it's true just because IPS B.S. posted it.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the BAT?
ReplyDeleteThe normal procedure would be to place an job offering in some professional journals. There is no way it is necessary to keep traveling to China.
ReplyDeleteWhy China?
ReplyDeleteIs this the trip Dr. Hunter went on.
Are these Chinese practices going to be taught and used in all schools, or just the magnets?
Actually it was Taiwan and it was at the expense of the Taiwanese government as part of an exchange program. Taiwanese school leaders came and toured our school and invited some of our principals to come and do the same- on their dime. There is also a program in the works to exchange some students. Some of us at our school have volunteered to house the students.
ReplyDeletehunter went to china. he came back mad because his vice ran the building better than he does while he was gone.
ReplyDeleteTaiwan
ReplyDeleteDid Hunter miss the House??
ReplyDeleteYes, four or more Taiwanese principals came last year and toured not only school 15 but many other IPS school districts.
ReplyDeleteStudents in my class have already begun exchanging newsletters, cards, emails, and projects with their students. My students really are enjoying this new opportunity for them.
If you would like to view some wonderful pictures, visit School 15's website and you can actually see the Taiwanese Principals visiting students in my class and in our school. Guess what, it was paid at their expense.
They came to learn from IPS schools and programs on last year to share with their schools and this year they (Taiwan ROC) paid for our principals to visit them and to learn at their expense again.
We will hopefully have some of their students and teacher(s) in the near future come to us and hopefully we can go and teach for them for a year.
So why the negative comments? If it was a Greenfield, Boonville, Martinsville, etc. school district with this opportunity, we would not be reading the negative comments once again.
Any educator/person in their right mind would consider it an opportunity to visit partner schools in other countires.
countries
ReplyDeleteI'm a teacher at School 15 and I agreed to partner with a family when the come also. What is the big deal? What a great learning experience for all students involved. Next topic!
ReplyDeleteNext topic please.
ReplyDeleteHere's one.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't the School 15 teachers spell?
Did Hunter miss the House while he was in Taiwan???
ReplyDeletePersonally the information regarding School 15 and the Taiwan exchange is enlightening. Thanks for sharing, it's too bad some people strive only on pettiness and viciousness.
ReplyDeleteThe same people make the same comments about the same schools/administrators time and time again.
Because if we learned to spell we couldn't so fiendishly divert your attention from something that is actually interesting!
ReplyDeleteWhat about the BAT.
ReplyDelete...but did Dr. Hunter miss the House?? Questions unanswered get asked again.
ReplyDeleteActually, I've never commented on 15.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the fuel.
Seriously, Chinese has been offered for nearly two decades at #34. Joe Bryant wrote a state foreign language grant, and was far ahead of our time with both foreign language and technology.
He earned a Lilly Fellowship to tour China, and his 25-foot long paper-mache dragon is probably still in use each winter (if it survived the move).
Great pioneer, that Joe Bryant!
Too bad those that went--Johnson, Harrell and their pet principal Hunter--didn't just stay there.
ReplyDeleteThe real shame here it that no one who had direct day to day contact with CHILDREN went...
ReplyDeleteMoving on...
ReplyDeleteThey have answered the question about who paid for what. Now next topic please.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...School #60 is getting their heating/cooling system completely redone this summer! Is that exciting news enough for you?
ReplyDeleteWhy does Valic have a lock on the 403B accounts?Why is there no choice? What about Tony Bennett's latest salvo?
ReplyDeleteMost employers negotiate with a company to get the best deal for their employees 403B accounts. I assume that is the case here. My Valic account has done very well. I am not unhappy with them at all.
ReplyDeleteDon't know what a salvo is but
ReplyDeleteVOTE TONY BENNETT OUT OF OFFICE
We put him there, we can get rid of him.
Rescind, eradicate, roll back the IPS raises
ReplyDeleteBy AMOS BROWN III
Published: Thursday, February 4, 2010 11:38 AM EST
The Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners voted last week to accept Superintendent Dr. Eugene White’s recommendation granting raises to four highly paid IPS administrators.
The School Board also voted to grant the superintendent a three percent raise.
Both actions by the IPS School Board were wrong.
The Indianapolis Public Schools aren’t Microsoft, Wal-Mart or Warren Buffett’s company. IPS, like nearly every school district in Indiana and many nationwide, and like many non-profits and for-profit entities, is facing severe economic pressures and stresses.
Indiana property tax caps are negatively impacting IPS’ transportation and maintenance budgets. And IPS’ loss of thousands of students in recent years, plus the Great Recession’s impact on state government revenues, has IPS facing between $20-$30 million in funding shortfalls.
IPS dodged scores of teacher layoffs this school year because of the one-time injection of federal stimulus money. This coming school year, IPS won’t be as fortunate.
IPS’ layoffs impact newer, younger teachers – many with the thrill and desire to teach using techniques and methods that engage today’s MTV/BET, Facebook, Wii-oriented, texting-tested students.
White said the four veteran IPS administrators deserved raises, pushing their salaries around $100,000 because they were taking on more responsibility.
Speaking Monday on WTLC-AM1310’s “Afternoons with Amos,” IPS Board President Michael Brown said the four administrators didn’t receive “raises.” Instead they were moving to “a different job responsibility with a different (higher) authorized salary.”
That may be true, but its semantics are not relevant to today’s economic realities.
How many of you reading this took on more responsibility at your job? Did you get a raise for that? If you’re like me and most Americans and Hoosiers, the answer is no.
When times were good, raises like those OK’d by IPS were fine. When times are hard, they’re an insult!
Board President Brown and White say that the other school districts pay their administrators more money. That keeping up with the Jones’ mentality doesn’t fly in these tough economic times.
In his State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama called out the nation’s colleges and universities, urging them to show restraint in their tuition and costs.
Our public schools should show the same restraint. In this era of tight school budgets, school administrations and school boards should show leadership and freeze administrative salaries and if the budget woes are tough, roll some of those salaries back until the fiscal crisis passes.
The media industry, including the media I work for, have had salaries and raises frozen, even rolled back to weather the economic storm. If we in media can do it, so can those in education.
IPS must roll back the raises, immediately!
it's all the same ATHS admin "Golden Girls" have gone to Florida for the week. Why do things during school.
ReplyDelete