Sunday, September 12, 2010

Summer Disadvantage

Did anyone read about IPS' missed opportunity this past summer? It would have been great, but we have leadership that has no vision.

36 comments:

  1. Tulley blames the union for IPS not participating, how about some evidence of that, beside someone from the administration saying it. If you were to believe the administration IEA is responsible for global warming, the rotten economy, and winter.

    I will speculate the reason we didn't participate is that the central office would have had to relinquish power to another body, and there wasn't money in it for someone in the central offices buddy.

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  2. IPS used a 4-day work week during the summer because the 12-month employees (i.e., administrators) enjoy having 3-day weekends. End of the untold story.

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  3. It's time for new leadership!

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  4. Gosh and here I thought IPS said working the 4 day week was to save energy, money bla, bla, bla.
    The classified worked the 4 day week and the certified worked their usual summer hours, show up after 9 and leave before 3.

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  5. The goal was to save money. Was there a review to prove it did save money?

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  6. We had to shut down schools so the money allocated for cooling structures could be utilized to ensure all cell phones remained active, regardless of what Channel 59 "falsely" reported (see IPS Headline page).

    Look at it this way: our students are way, way behind grade level, so we have the opportunity to show mega-increases this school year!

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  7. From IPS Headline Page

    "Fox 59 Airs Faulty Report on IPS Cell Phones

    09-09-2010

    Using a report from an anti-public education advocacy group as the basis for its story, Fox 59 aired a false story concerning IPS cell phone charges on Sept. 9.

    The district was accused of spending $25,000 per month on cell phone charges with carrier AT&T. The Education Action Group, a Michigan-based trio, made the claim in a newsletter it sent to media. The group based its claim on a review of cell phone records made available through a public records request -- records it posted to a public website. However, while the group claimed that a Dec. 16, 2009-Jan. 15, 2010 AT&T invoice charged $19,056.82, no such bill was posted to the website.

    That's because no such bill exists. The total AT&T charges for that timeframe are $1,015.25. IPS pays approximately $500 per month for the account cited - an account that does not pay for cell phone usage. The account pays the cost of GPS services on the district's fleet of 425 vehicles, including buses, school police cars, and maintenance trucks.

    Fox 59 failed to use common journalistic research techniques to discover this fabrication.

    In Spring 2009, the account in question was charged more than $19,000 in overage fees by AT&T. However, the district worked with AT&T to successfully remove the charges after it was discovered the overage fees were inappropriately charged. Those fees were removed in July 2009.

    EAG also noted that IPS pays approximately $5,000 per month to Sprint for cell phone service. Sprint provides service to 172 employees at a cost of approximately $34 per person. The majority of these employees are school police officers, craftsmen (plumbers, electricians, glazers, etc.), and transportation supervisors who need cell phones to conduct their business, as their jobs require them to be mobile and not stationed at a desk. These employees do work on behalf of IPS children, from transporting them to and from school to ensuring their classrooms are safe. To claim these charges do not serve children is false."

    Methink he protests too much.

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  8. If you dont think every IPS administrator has a taxpayed funded cell phone, then you are naive as hell.

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  9. My husband has been an assistant principal with IPS for four years. He has never had a cell phone paid for by IPS. They also do not reimburse him for his own cell phone. I am not naive as hell as you put it - I am informed.

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  10. Of course they don't give assistant principals cell phones. Those are reserved for the really important people who work in the ed center. They do the REAL work of IPS. Yeah right.

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  11. Why should they give your husband a cell phone if he is willing to pay to use his own phone......believe me, many vice and assistant principals have them.....your husband just made a choice....

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  12. I suspect that when SBDM doesn't ask where the money is going and how it is allocated, the principal decides they can spend it any way they want, and then gets assistants cell phones. Some schools everyone and their brother has a school cell, and others no one has one.

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  13. Why does downtown have so many administrators hired to spend full time one school. I think Kay Kelly and the other one must have offices at Manual.

    Is this just job justification. Maybe, just maybe, it would be less of a cost to hire two first year teachers for the same price as her.

    Especially when all she does is write notes and never reveals them to you and their is never in any feedback. As person in the room next to me said. For all we know she is playing tick-tack-toe with her self (for the feedback we receive).

    Do other schools have downtown administrators avoiding doing work in their downtown offices. Maybe its just time to get rid of 120 Walnut since all its employees hate spending time down there. They must not have enough to do? So, they are out making it look as if they are working.

    In addition why are some teachers being targeted and other NOT. Some teachers have three to five walk throughs a day while others have barely had five all year. What is with that?

    What is the point of turnaround schools having all teachers evaluated if those evaluations cannot be used in an interview or any where else? Just break the contract? Just to show who is really boss?

    Just some questions for this fine Tuesday morning as I wake.

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  14. You are right, they are targeting people, they got away with it last year, so they are going for it again this year. Look for bigger numbers in January, as they deem more teachers the worst in IPS.

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  15. My God Kay Kelly, she is the most unprofessional administrator that was ever hired by IPS. She was to be fired, then became a weed checker, and now she is turning around Manual, she ruined School 88. A mean, lying, back stabbing, broad.

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  16. Just a crazy thought ---- maybe there should be 'term limits' on IPS administrators length of employment.

    I realize it's very time consuming to fire a really bad teacher because of all the observations, proof of incompetency, etc., but what is the procedure for releasing an administrator? Just how long does IPS intend to keep some administrators who are well over 65 years old? These are folks who qualify for full retirement through both Teacher Retirement Plan and Social Security and also qualify for Medicare. It's not like they really need their jobs because they have no source of income, and it's not because of their cutting edge job expertise. When exactly is the right time to hang up your hat?

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  17. Why do we "fire" a really bad teacher, but merely "release" an administrator? That's like the times an administer has involuntarily returned to the classroom is "demoted" to that position.

    We sometimes devalue our own profession. It's not necessary, as our administration does it for us willingly!

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  18. IPS doesn't merely "release" an administrators, they merely "recycle" them.
    The administrators leave through retirement, and IPS finds a way to bring them back.

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  19. @IPS doesn't merely "release" an administrators, they merely "recycle" them.

    I like your wording. Recycle is an excellent word choice. I can see the headlines now:

    IPS Goes Green and Recycles

    On a more serious note, can anyone name an administrator who IPS ever fired, let go, released? I can't think of any.

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  20. This goes way back. There was a vp at Tech who was accused of child molestation along with a teacher at 72.

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  21. I think I remember, back in the late 80's. One day he was there and the next, he was gone.

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  22. Where's Peggy Averitte? She left IPS for Boston, returned after an alleged run-in with the law, crash landed at 34, then drove east to 64. Last known vicinity was at the reception center. She's off the radar now, no email, etc.

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  23. http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/SEARCH/snapshot.cfm?schl=5631

    Here's Key Learning Community's test scores as compared to the state average. Click on the AYP button to see how they've done on that since its inception years ago. That should be interesting information for anyone wanting to see how well the year round program works at improving student achievement.

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  24. After further observation of their 94% graduation rate, I see that they only had 19 people graduate in 2009. I guess that means that they must only have had about 20 students. I'll bet that if other high schools only had 20 students they'd be doing a lot better. The two schools can hardly be used as examples to compare to the rest of the IPS schools.

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  25. It also looks like Key has 35 teachers. That's a lot of teachers!

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  26. Key is a 1-12 program. Of course they have 35 teachers.

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  27. The administrator at Tech was put on paid suspension until he qualified for retirement and then retired and moved to Florida.....I don´t think anyone can think of an administrator who has been fired.....perhaps the VP at Arlington who was caught selling stolen goods out of his car trunk in the school parking lot.

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  28. Happiness is being an EH teacher with TWO kids, plus an aide, in a classroom. True bliss comes when those two kids are mainstreamed each afternoon. SHE WORKS HARDS FOR THE MONEY, SO HARD FOR IT, HONEY.

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  29. How about happiness is making the school schedule so you don't have to teach after 11:30 on Mondays and you get to go play ass't. principal in the afternoons. Nothing like getting paid for 5 days but only working 4.5. Sure wish I could get a gig like that.

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  30. Any more good stories about useless people??

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  31. Key actually has two classes of "K" too. So, there are two.

    Many kids leave Key in the middle and high school level to play sports and have competative clubs. The Key concept is fine for school hours but part of learning is dealing with success and failure (a concept not taught during the day in my opinion). I think they would have more kids if they opened up the after school activities to such sports as Cross Country, Tennis (believe there are even courts in back), Track, Golf, and possibly Basketball and Volleyball in the MS and HS level.

    More families would stay and they would have larger classes. (They would definetly be IHSAA 1A school).

    Would be interesting to see how many students would begin to stay instead of going elsewhere as they enter the upper grades.

    JMO

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  32. @Happiness is being an EH teacher with TWO kids

    This should be reported to Robb Wariner. Fact is that the teacher probably has 8 to 10 students enrolled on paper, but actually they are on Homebound. The classroom teacher still gets to count them on her roster. Unfair? YES.

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  33. The "school improvement" team members were in the building, and this teacher's light load was reported to them. Stay tuned to see if word gets back to Robb Wariner.

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  34. Good move on the SI Team's behalf, but Robb is not a man to make waves in his professional life. He is one of those overly nice people who tries to please everyone and ends up pleasing no one. No need to report this to Marsha or Paula, especially Paula. Pleasant enough ladies, but, like Robb, never make waves and worry about ruffling anyone's feathers in the Ed Center.

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  35. Wow, so we hate mean people AND nice people. Tough crowd. Tough crowd.

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  36. Matt Tully has his head in the sand, supporting Tony Bennett and his lame-brained one-size-fits-all thinking. I teach at an IPS High School as a Title I Reading teacher. These students read two levels below their grade, but scheduling is so erratic and misconstrued, I have magnet students reading at two levels above grade level and one/fifth of the class is Special Ed and below---as low as 2nd grade! Who cares? Give them a one-size-fits-all test and blame the teacher and the "Destructive Union" that protects bad teachers. Handicap us again, Matt Tully!

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