Are they really going to lay off 150 administrators and 450 teachers? I heard that anyone with over five years experience at BRHS or Tech will be fired during the take over by IDOE and they are hiring new teachers at $29,000 per year.
According to the union lightning bolt email sent out this week:
Turnaround Schools - There are 6 high schools and 1 elementary school that have been targeted as turnaround schools. This means that those schools may only retain up to 49% of the current staff and the administration is replaced. Please know that the new administration along with IEA will participate in the interview process. Human Resources has been conducting meetings at these schools and Rod Ellcessor and/or I (Ann Wilkins) have been in attendance at these meetings. We are also there to answer any questions that may arise.
School Closings - In the 2011-12 school year Gambold Middle School will no longer exist, those students will join the Northwest Community High School population. Also the cadre will no longer exist as the Federal Stimulus monies that provided those teachers' salaries will no longer be available.
RIF - This year we will be experiencing a Reduction in Force. We have been notified that a minimum of 241 teachers will receive notice. It will also follow seniority and certification. Please remember that those who are RIF'd must follow contract language. First and second year teachers will be the first to receive notice, as they a non-permanent teachers. Next, will be semi-permanent teachers (3-5 years of service) and they are on a point system which includes seniority, evaluations, attendance (excluding FMLA and bereavement) and discipline.
Did the union not know that they added one middle school to the Turnaround schools? Donnan was given notice January 13th that next year they will be reconstituted, even after making Safe Harbor for the 2010 ISTEP. While the other schools have had the entire first semester to prepare for what is about to happen, this staff is being given two short weeks to take in the news and prepare all they need to re-apply for their jobs. It just doesn't seem right to have that little notice.
Oh this is a can of worms..what does it mean? Do teachers who simply ignore negative behavior and never write students up for things like coming late, not working, disturbing class, bullying, etc get points for not having discipline problems?
Or do people who really work to get kids to be self disciplined get credit for actually following the policy. Of course that would mean someone in administration would actually have to talk with students to determine what is going on as far as discipline was concerned.
I was called into the office to discuss a student. The parent felt I was "harassing" them and their child, because I kept calling and writing the student up. The first thing I asked the dean was to pull up the students attendance and grades. She failed all her classes and cut most classes each day. I was the only teacher who called or wrote her up. Now answer me this..how will I be rated in discipline... because I have been told I write too many kids up.
@I was the only teacher who called or wrote her up. Now answer me this..how will I be rated in discipline... because I have been told I write too many kids up.
Exact same thing always happened to me and a few other teachers at Arlington. Evidently only a very few of us bothered to go Online and document the behavior referral on the Six Steps of Discipline, so when the parent would arrive for a conference with the Dean, the student, and me, I was left looking like the bad guy, the only teacher where the student ever acted out. Other teachers would complain, gripe, and bitch about this same student's behavior, but they'd never bother to document it Online as an official referral. This occurs way too frequently. Maybe this is part of what is called the 'IPS culture'. I never understood adult, educated professional teachers who acted like making an Online behavior referral was snitching on the student.
I told the parent they shouldn't be mad at me, they should be mad at the other six teachers who were suppose to be teaching her child, and didn't give a rats rear end about the kid. And the lack of care about students is at the heart of part of the problem in IPS that is the responsibility of teachers. No body is innocent in what is going on.
Eugene White does not want the 6 step discipline policy followed. It would look bad for him. Ann Wilkins sold her soul to Eugene White two years ago. Having Ann Wilkins look out for the rights of teachers is like having a fox in the hen house. She is a spineless sellout coward and ISTA should be embarrassed to have a local president with her lack of integrity.
Oh, God, I hope I'm on the list. Unemployment, here I come! I won't have to thit through another of Big Gene's "Back to Thcool Thelebrationth" at Tech, prepare a sweltering classroom the second week of August. Hell, I might just end up in a newer building with air conditioning and a sink in the room and Elmos and working wireless and soap in the rest rooms.......
What? What? Quit shaking me....I want to return to my dream..... What do you mean? I have too many years!!!!! I WANT TO BE RIFFED!
You said it exactly right.... Unemployment here I come.... IPS will have a lot of people claiming unemployment if they don't find us jobs..... I can sit pretty till the call me back....
@"Ann Wilkins sold her soul to Eugene White two years ago. Having Ann Wilkins look out for the rights of teachers is like having a fox in the hen house. She is a spineless sellout coward and ISTA should be embarrassed to have a local president with her lack of integrity."
My personal experience with her doesn't match this comment at all. She has been a great help at the school/administrative level.
I just need one more year, then I would love to get my unemployment checks each month. I have paid into the fund for years and years, then I could sit back and enjoy life for how many years on unemployment?
Are they sending the Reggio Emilio TEACHERS to Italy for training this summer? Or will Dr. White, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Giles, Dr. Suggs, Ms Bewely, Dr. Bridgwater, Dr. Kendrick, and Ms. Denny-Rohrbach go?
I wonder if IPS will do as FWCS did. If you are rif'ed and in a turn around school they do not have to call you back but can go to an outside hire. There are still rif'ed teachers in FWCS and 100 new hires. The key phrase will be certification not tenure as turn around schools don't have to follow that in the grand scheme of things and there is nothing teachers can do because they have to hire some "outside" teachers percentage wise
I know that we have to have notice by April, that is a long way off for teachers. If you have the certification you can bump a new hire out of the slot. They just want to get rid of the highly paid, older teachers, then hire more admistrators to watch over the young teachers.
Let me explain this better. At FWCS there were hundreds of RIF notices given. BUT at the LEAD schools aka turnaround schools teachers had to reapply and interview for their positions. The NON laid off teachers got to go first. Then the rif'ed teachers. Neither group had the "right" to be hired back. It was at the discretion of the "new" principal in charge. So if you weren't REhired you were just simply OUT of a job with FWCS. I am assuming the IPS will do the same. FWCS teachers were told at their rif meeting with the super that they were NO longer employees of FWCS unless they were chosen to be hired back. All rif'ed teachers were given their pay in full in June just in case they didn't come back, which many didn't and the districts turnaround schools had the right, which they did bring in outside teachers. Good luck IPS teachers I hope this doesn't happen to you
Yes We went through all of this last year. The game rules changed as interviews went a long. After all of our changes one of the h.s. principals ended up being pulled, fired, whatever they want to call it. The hardest part of all of the removing/transferring teachers etc., were breaking the relationships with the students and watching fellow teachers not being called back and replaced. Tough situation
I do have a question. With Broad Ripple converting to a magnet school I thought that they would be able to start over as a "new" school. This was not the case? The reason I ask is that Paul Harding HS in East Allen is reopening their high school next year as a college prep saying this is needed to stop state take over. If this the case why wasn't BR allowed to start over if they weren't?
Because the state doesn't want to be embarrassed by not being able to do any better than IPS...They should have taken Arlington, but they don't want it. They think they can take Ripple with it's more middle class clients and do a better job. Arlington they have no idea what to do with that mess.
Do you realize there is a difference between a turn around school where the local school district remains the management structure and a turn around school where the State DOE out sources the management to a different management? The new management does not have any obligation to the local school district's contracts, teachers or vendors. In fact, the DOE has stated turn around outsource operators are free to hire an entirely new staff. The local school district has to figure out what to do with the "old, displaced" staff.
If the state takes over the schools it has proposed to take over, IPS will lose almost 1/3rd of its general fund.
Yes I know the difference. Even after all the changes with staff and principals at IPS, FWCS, Hammond etc., the state can still come in and give away our schools. Because the state really isn't taking them over, they are outsourcing them to a new management corporation. The state couldn't take over a school because they themselves have no idea what to do and by handing a school over to someone else the next guy can take the kick in the butt when there is still no success rate increase. This has happened in other states and eventually the school corp. was given the school back. We have to remember that Bennett is only trying to increase charter school existence to pad his wifes wallet and eventually his because there isn't much money in being the state supt. He could make MUCH more as supt. of charter schools
Charters don't make money for Bennett, they open up this pot of money to his chums...think of privatizing trash trucks. When they were owned by the city they ran for no profit, they just paid the actual cost, a living wage for trashmen, and cost of the trucks and the cost to maintain them. Now they are "privatized". They can't charge more than it cost before it was privatized. The trucks and their operating expenses remain a constant. So how is the private operator going to make money? Why in labor cost of course. So in order for this person to make money he hires people at lower wages then they would make working for the city. Basically more good jobs disappear so someone can make money.
Charters will get the same amount of money per student, they'll do some FLASHY stuff, and cut corners where they can. Teachers and school staff salaries, school supplies and equipment. I have friends in another city and their school was taken over by one of these companies and they got no supplies for over three years. Try teaching shop, art, biology, or elementary school with out an expendable supply budget.
Big business is chomping at the bit to get the education dollars. Think about traditional universities where professors taught and did research. How much "research" is being done by the professors at the University of Phoenix on Line? Yes they provide a service but they also provide a profit for the companies that "own" them. You can buy shares of University of Phoenix on the stock exchange, can you buy IU shares on the NASDEC? Here is the stock link http://www.apollogrp.edu/
President Obama has touted the establishment of more Charter Schools since the time he began campaigning for his Presidency. He continues to support the increase of Charter Schools. We sound like narrow-minded people when we place the blame for more Charters solely on Gov. Daniels. Both Democrats AND Republicans are pushing for more Charters. Read the newspapers and watch the national news.
I don't know if it is a joke or not, but there is training, meetings, and seminars on the Reggio Emilio program every summer in Italy. And in the past when ever there is "teacher training" somewhere wonderful a boat load of people who never work directly with kids and another boat load that never see kids go along, think of the Avid training.
On Charters and Obama, to a politician this is sort of a "do you still beat your wife question?" there is no good answer, Do you condone parents having to send their children to failing public schools?
We've been in a downward spiral for years, due in part to our own leadership not standing up to this type of attack. We're not smart enough to know the answer to this question, "of course were I don't think that parents should be forced to send their children to failing schools, so lets look at xyz schools where they offer X numbers of programs that are appropriate for all students, and they provide additional and effective funding and support for at risk students, and this has proven to be effective.
No when they took programs out of our schools that had a direct effect on student interest and engagement we stood by, good bye shop and home ec, good bye vocational classes, good bye anything that was fun, everyone is going to college so we better focus all our energy on getting them test ready.
From Readicide The focus has changed in our schools and not in a good way. High interest reading is being squeezed out in favor of more test preparation practice. Interesting books disappear as funding is diverted to purchase "magic pill" reading programs...For many students, academic reading, though incredibly important, has become their only reading. (How would you like it if the only reading you ever did in your life was Shakespeare and Beowulf?) pg 4, and Of course the biggest danger of sprinting through various readings in any content area is that we graduate students who do not develop an interest in any content area. Authentic interest is generated when students are given the opportunity to delve deeply into an interesting idea." pg 10
And he is not focusing on inner city kids, this is a national problem, but back to our kids, here is a face book posts from one of my former students, now grown, who never graduated..he found that opportunity to delve deeply into an interesting idea..street life
i hit the streets when i was 12 and didnt look back,,,me and lil jerry was getting money now we got the streets on are back,,,you need to hurry up and touch down bro,,hillside projects bitch we all we got,,,,STREETLIFE intell its over,,,,,and yes bitch I'am my brother keeper
What would have happened to this young man if when he was in sixth grade he was studying something, anything that really engaged his brain? One thing you see when you connect to former students on facebook is that they are more similar then different, for all his street language and street life this kid loves his girl friend and their baby, his friends, and wants a better life, and we failed him...
Has anyone looked at the Board Report for this month. Giving thousands of dollars in raises to administrators moving to other schools? Channel 6 did a report on this. I hope they continue it, because I can't believe that IEA would let this happen. OH RIGHT - Ann Wilkens loves Eugene -
Rumor has it that Butler U. has backed out of the Reggio Emilio program slated to begin next year at school #60. Anybody know anything about this? Did anyone who's a Butler alumni receive a letter from Eugene inviting them to apply for the Reggio program?
What does Deborah Daly do at Arsenal Tech? Her name has been added to the list of Non-Renewed Certified Contracts on the Board Agenda for Tuesday night. It's highlighted in red.
From the Butler Newsletter last fall (re: the Reggio Program): _________________________________________________
All of the teachers at the new program will be employed by IPS and will be trained through Butler’s COE.
Butler alumnus Ronald Smith will serve as principal of the new school.
Smith is currently the principal of the Warren Early Childhood Center for the metropolitan School District of Warren Township in Indianapolis and will hold this position through the 2010-2011 school year.
Smith will hold a non-tenure track faculty position in the Butler COE and will teach and participate in research projects at the elementary school, White said.
The new school will operate out of the current William A. Bell School No. 60 at 3330 N. Pennsylvania Ave.
Students living near the school and children of Butler employees will be given priority in terms of acceptance.
“It’s important to me for employees to keep their children in IPS schools,” Fong said. “We have to be part of this community.”
It doesn't matter if Butler employees' kids and neighborhood kids are given priority admission to the Reggio school. They've restricted enrollment to K-1 next year. The whole neighborhood is angry about this. We thought we were finally going to get a quality school within walking distance. Turns out that is only true for the families with young kids. I don't expect the Reggio school to succeed. If they can't fathom teaching my second-grader, they won't last long in the culture of IPS.
I wouldn't want my kindergarten or first grade child attending the Reggio School next year if the current students in grades 2-6 will be there. The current school is an out-of-control mess, with little or no discipline. I'd be afraid for my child's safety.
I was reading the post that referred to the IEA Lightning Bolt email. What do they mean when they talk about certifications for the teachers being rif'd? How firm is the 241 minimum? If 241 is the minimum, what is the maximum? I am on the bubble of the cut.
Are they really going to lay off 150 administrators and 450 teachers? I heard that anyone with over five years experience at BRHS or Tech will be fired during the take over by IDOE and they are hiring new teachers at $29,000 per year.
ReplyDeleteI might be, I just purchased a new vehicle.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the union lightning bolt email sent out this week:
ReplyDeleteTurnaround Schools - There are 6 high schools and 1 elementary school that have been targeted as turnaround schools. This means that those schools may only retain up to 49% of the current staff and the administration is replaced. Please know that the new administration along with IEA will participate in the interview process. Human Resources has been conducting meetings at these schools and Rod Ellcessor and/or I (Ann Wilkins) have been in attendance at these meetings. We are also there to answer any questions that may arise.
School Closings - In the 2011-12 school year Gambold Middle School will no longer exist, those students will join the Northwest Community High School population. Also the cadre will no longer exist as the Federal Stimulus monies that provided those teachers' salaries will no longer be available.
RIF - This year we will be experiencing a Reduction in Force. We have been notified that a minimum of 241 teachers will receive notice. It will also follow seniority and certification. Please remember that those who are RIF'd must follow contract language. First and second year teachers will be the first to receive notice, as they a non-permanent teachers. Next, will be semi-permanent teachers (3-5 years of service) and they are on a point system which includes seniority, evaluations, attendance (excluding FMLA and bereavement) and discipline.
Did the union not know that they added one middle school to the Turnaround schools? Donnan was given notice January 13th that next year they will be reconstituted, even after making Safe Harbor for the 2010 ISTEP. While the other schools have had the entire first semester to prepare for what is about to happen, this staff is being given two short weeks to take in the news and prepare all they need to re-apply for their jobs. It just doesn't seem right to have that little notice.
ReplyDelete"and discipline."
ReplyDeleteOh this is a can of worms..what does it mean? Do teachers who simply ignore negative behavior and never write students up for things like coming late, not working, disturbing class, bullying, etc get points for not having discipline problems?
Or do people who really work to get kids to be self disciplined get credit for actually following the policy. Of course that would mean someone in administration would actually have to talk with students to determine what is going on as far as discipline was concerned.
I was called into the office to discuss a student. The parent felt I was "harassing" them and their child, because I kept calling and writing the student up. The first thing I asked the dean was to pull up the students attendance and grades. She failed all her classes and cut most classes each day. I was the only teacher who called or wrote her up. Now answer me this..how will I be rated in discipline... because I have been told I write too many kids up.
@I was the only teacher who called or wrote her up. Now answer me this..how will I be rated in discipline... because I have been told I write too many kids up.
ReplyDeleteExact same thing always happened to me and a few other teachers at Arlington. Evidently only a very few of us bothered to go Online and document the behavior referral on the Six Steps of Discipline, so when the parent would arrive for a conference with the Dean, the student, and me, I was left looking like the bad guy, the only teacher where the student ever acted out. Other teachers would complain, gripe, and bitch about this same student's behavior, but they'd never bother to document it Online as an official referral. This occurs way too frequently. Maybe this is part of what is called the 'IPS culture'. I never understood adult, educated professional teachers who acted like making an Online behavior referral was snitching on the student.
When this is the attitude it puts teachers between a rock and a hard place...do what is right for the kids and their future, or keep your job.
ReplyDeleteI told the parent they shouldn't be mad at me, they should be mad at the other six teachers who were suppose to be teaching her child, and didn't give a rats rear end about the kid. And the lack of care about students is at the heart of part of the problem in IPS that is the responsibility of teachers. No body is innocent in what is going on.
ReplyDeleteEugene White does not want the 6 step discipline policy followed. It would look bad for him. Ann Wilkins sold her soul to Eugene White two years ago. Having Ann Wilkins look out for the rights of teachers is like having a fox in the hen house. She is a spineless sellout coward and ISTA should be embarrassed to have a local president with her lack of integrity.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.indystar.com/article/20110123/LOCAL18/101230388/Matthew-Tully-IPS-official-reacts-badly-state-memo?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|IndyStar.com
ReplyDeleteThank you, IPS BS.
Oh, God, I hope I'm on the list. Unemployment, here I come! I won't have to thit through another of Big Gene's "Back to Thcool Thelebrationth" at Tech, prepare a sweltering classroom the second week of August. Hell, I might just end up in a newer building with air conditioning and a sink in the room and Elmos and working wireless and soap in the rest rooms.......
ReplyDeleteWhat? What? Quit shaking me....I want to return to my dream..... What do you mean? I have too many years!!!!! I WANT TO BE RIFFED!
You said it exactly right.... Unemployment here I come.... IPS will have a lot of people claiming unemployment if they don't find us jobs..... I can sit pretty till the call me back....
ReplyDelete@"Ann Wilkins sold her soul to Eugene White two years ago. Having Ann Wilkins look out for the rights of teachers is like having a fox in the hen house. She is a spineless sellout coward and ISTA should be embarrassed to have a local president with her lack of integrity."
ReplyDeleteMy personal experience with her doesn't match this comment at all. She has been a great help at the school/administrative level.
Which Elementary school is on the list for Turnaround? Is it school #60?
ReplyDeleteWhen will the new Riggio Program start at #60 and where is the Riggio principal?
ReplyDeleteI just need one more year, then I would love to get my unemployment checks each month. I have paid into the fund for years and years, then I could sit back and enjoy life for how many years on unemployment?
ReplyDeleteAre they sending the Reggio Emilio TEACHERS to Italy for training this summer? Or will Dr. White, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Giles, Dr. Suggs, Ms Bewely, Dr.
ReplyDeleteBridgwater, Dr. Kendrick, and Ms. Denny-Rohrbach go?
All expense paid trip to Italy, yippee!
You are correct, but you didn't put their children on the list to visit Italy.
ReplyDeleteWell....I know of a science teacher from BR that was R.I.F...oh my bad booted out and sent to Attucks....sorry for your luck Attucks...
ReplyDeleteI wonder if IPS will do as FWCS did. If you are rif'ed and in a turn around school they do not have to call you back but can go to an outside hire. There are still rif'ed teachers in FWCS and 100 new hires. The key phrase will be certification not tenure as turn around schools don't have to follow that in the grand scheme of things and there is nothing teachers can do because they have to hire some "outside" teachers percentage wise
ReplyDeleteWhen will this RIF list be released?
ReplyDeleteI know that we have to have notice by April, that is a long way off for teachers. If you have the certification you can bump a new hire out of the slot. They just want to get rid of the highly paid, older teachers, then hire more admistrators to watch over the young teachers.
ReplyDeleteLet me explain this better. At FWCS there were hundreds of RIF notices given. BUT at the LEAD schools aka turnaround schools teachers had to reapply and interview for their positions. The NON laid off teachers got to go first. Then the rif'ed teachers. Neither group had the "right" to be hired back. It was at the discretion of the "new" principal in charge. So if you weren't REhired you were just simply OUT of a job with FWCS. I am assuming the IPS will do the same. FWCS teachers were told at their rif meeting with the super that they were NO longer employees of FWCS unless they were chosen to be hired back. All rif'ed teachers were given their pay in full in June just in case they didn't come back, which many didn't and the districts turnaround schools had the right, which they did bring in outside teachers.
ReplyDeleteGood luck IPS teachers I hope this doesn't happen to you
I give up. What is FWCS? Fort Wayne Community Schools?
ReplyDeleteYes
ReplyDeleteWe went through all of this last year.
The game rules changed as interviews went a long. After all of our changes one of the h.s. principals ended up being pulled, fired, whatever they want to call it.
The hardest part of all of the removing/transferring teachers etc., were breaking the relationships with the students and watching fellow teachers not being called back and replaced.
Tough situation
I do have a question. With Broad Ripple converting to a magnet school I thought that they would be able to start over as a "new" school. This was not the case?
The reason I ask is that Paul Harding HS in East Allen is reopening their high school next year as a college prep saying this is needed to stop state take over.
If this the case why wasn't BR allowed to start over if they weren't?
Because the state doesn't want to be embarrassed by not being able to do any better than IPS...They should have taken Arlington, but they don't want it. They think they can take Ripple with it's more middle class clients and do a better job.
ReplyDeleteArlington they have no idea what to do with that mess.
Do you realize there is a difference between a turn around school where the local school district remains the management structure and a turn around school where the State DOE out sources the management to a different management? The new management does not have any obligation to the local school district's contracts, teachers or vendors. In fact, the DOE has stated turn around outsource operators are free to hire an entirely new staff. The local school district has to figure out what to do with the "old, displaced" staff.
ReplyDeleteIf the state takes over the schools it has proposed to take over, IPS will lose almost 1/3rd of its general fund.
Yes I know the difference. Even after all the changes with staff and principals at IPS, FWCS, Hammond etc., the state can still come in and give away our schools. Because the state really isn't taking them over, they are outsourcing them to a new management corporation. The state couldn't take over a school because they themselves have no idea what to do and by handing a school over to someone else the next guy can take the kick in the butt when there is still no success rate increase. This has happened in other states and eventually the school corp. was given the school back.
ReplyDeleteWe have to remember that Bennett is only trying to increase charter school existence to pad his wifes wallet and eventually his because there isn't much money in being the state supt. He could make MUCH more as supt. of charter schools
If charter schools are public school and are taxpayer funded how can Bennett make more money with charters?
ReplyDeleteCharters don't make money for Bennett, they open up this pot of money to his chums...think of privatizing trash trucks. When they were owned by the city they ran for no profit, they just paid the actual cost, a living wage for trashmen, and cost of the trucks and the cost to maintain them.
ReplyDeleteNow they are "privatized". They can't charge more than it cost before it was privatized. The trucks and their operating expenses remain a constant. So how is the private operator going to make money? Why in labor cost of course. So in order for this person to make money he hires people at lower wages then they would make working for the city. Basically more good jobs disappear so someone can make money.
Charters will get the same amount of money per student, they'll do some FLASHY stuff, and cut corners where they can. Teachers and school staff salaries, school supplies and equipment.
I have friends in another city and their school was taken over by one of these companies and they got no supplies for over three years. Try teaching shop, art, biology, or elementary school with out an expendable supply budget.
Big business is chomping at the bit to get the education dollars. Think about traditional universities where professors taught and did research. How much "research" is being done by the professors at the University of Phoenix on Line? Yes they provide a service but they also provide a profit for the companies that "own" them. You can buy shares of University of Phoenix on the stock exchange, can you buy IU shares on the NASDEC? Here is the stock link
http://www.apollogrp.edu/
President Obama has touted the establishment of more Charter Schools since the time he began campaigning for his Presidency. He continues to support the increase of Charter Schools. We sound like narrow-minded people when we place the blame for more Charters solely on Gov. Daniels. Both Democrats AND Republicans are pushing for more Charters. Read the newspapers and watch the national news.
ReplyDeleteAre they really sending those folks to Italy?? A joke, right? That would make good headlines in the Star News if it were true.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it is a joke or not, but there is training, meetings, and seminars on the Reggio Emilio program every summer in Italy. And in the past when ever there is "teacher training" somewhere wonderful a boat load of people who never work directly with kids and another boat load that never see kids go along, think of the Avid training.
ReplyDeleteOn Charters and Obama, to a politician this is sort of a "do you still beat your wife question?" there is no good answer, Do you condone parents having to send their children to failing public schools?
ReplyDeleteWe've been in a downward spiral for years, due in part to our own leadership not standing up to this type of attack. We're not smart enough to know the answer to this question, "of course were I don't think that parents should be forced to send their children to failing schools, so lets look at xyz schools where they offer X numbers of programs that are appropriate for all students, and they provide additional and effective funding and support for at risk students, and this has proven to be effective.
No when they took programs out of our schools that had a direct effect on student interest and engagement we stood by, good bye shop and home ec, good bye vocational classes, good bye anything that was fun, everyone is going to college so we better focus all our energy on getting them test ready.
From Readicide The focus has changed in our schools and not in a good way. High interest reading is being squeezed out in favor of more test preparation practice. Interesting books disappear as funding is diverted to purchase "magic pill" reading programs...For many students, academic reading, though incredibly important, has become their only reading. (How would you like it if the only reading you ever did in your life was Shakespeare and Beowulf?) pg 4, and Of course the biggest danger of sprinting through various readings in any content area is that we graduate students who do not develop an interest in any content area. Authentic interest is generated when students are given the opportunity to delve deeply into an interesting idea." pg 10
And he is not focusing on inner city kids, this is a national problem, but back to our kids, here is a face book posts from one of my former students, now grown, who never graduated..he found that opportunity to delve deeply into an interesting idea..street life
i hit the streets when i was 12 and didnt look back,,,me and lil jerry was getting money now we got the streets on are back,,,you need to hurry up and touch down bro,,hillside projects bitch we all we got,,,,STREETLIFE intell its over,,,,,and yes bitch I'am my brother keeper
What would have happened to this young man if when he was in sixth grade he was studying something, anything that really engaged his brain? One thing you see when you connect to former students on facebook is that they are more similar then different, for all his street language and street life this kid loves his girl friend and their baby, his friends, and wants a better life, and we failed him...
Has anyone looked at the Board Report for this month. Giving thousands of dollars in raises to administrators moving to other schools? Channel 6 did a report on this. I hope they continue it, because I can't believe that IEA would let this happen. OH RIGHT - Ann Wilkens loves Eugene -
ReplyDeleteWhat does IEA have to do with the assignment of principals or raises. NOTHING. I can't figure out how the board lets it happen?
ReplyDeleteRumor has it that Butler U. has backed out of the Reggio Emilio program slated to begin next year at school #60. Anybody know anything about this? Did anyone who's a Butler alumni receive a letter from Eugene inviting them to apply for the Reggio program?
ReplyDeleteThe "Reggio" principal was supposed to begin working at #60 after Christmas. So far, no one's seen him. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteWhat does Deborah Daly do at Arsenal Tech? Her name has been added to the list of Non-Renewed Certified Contracts on the Board Agenda for Tuesday night. It's highlighted in red.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Butler Newsletter last fall (re: the Reggio Program):
ReplyDelete_________________________________________________
All of the teachers at the new program will be employed by IPS and will be trained through Butler’s COE.
Butler alumnus Ronald Smith will serve as principal of the new school.
Smith is currently the principal of the Warren Early Childhood Center for the metropolitan School District of Warren Township in Indianapolis and will hold this position through the 2010-2011 school year.
Smith will hold a non-tenure track faculty position in the Butler COE and will teach and participate in research projects at the elementary school, White said.
The new school will operate out of the current William A. Bell School No. 60 at 3330 N. Pennsylvania Ave.
Students living near the school and children of Butler employees will be given priority in terms of acceptance.
“It’s important to me for employees to keep their children in IPS schools,” Fong said. “We have to be part of this community.”
The IDOE has Deborah Daly listed as Director of Special Services at AT
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter if Butler employees' kids and neighborhood kids are given priority admission to the Reggio school. They've restricted enrollment to K-1 next year. The whole neighborhood is angry about this. We thought we were finally going to get a quality school within walking distance. Turns out that is only true for the families with young kids. I don't expect the Reggio school to succeed. If they can't fathom teaching my second-grader, they won't last long in the culture of IPS.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't want my kindergarten or first grade child attending the Reggio School next year if the current students in grades 2-6 will be there. The current school is an out-of-control mess, with little or no discipline. I'd be afraid for my child's safety.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of Reggio programs are preschool programs, up to 2nd grade... http://zerosei.comune.re.it/inter/index.htm
ReplyDeleteI was reading the post that referred to the IEA Lightning Bolt email. What do they mean when they talk about certifications for the teachers being rif'd? How firm is the 241 minimum? If 241 is the minimum, what is the maximum? I am on the bubble of the cut.
ReplyDeleteOh, just suck up to your principal by constantly sending her text messages, and have friends from your church donate pants to the school. Eh, blondie?
ReplyDeleteREPOSTED:
ReplyDeleteOh, just suck up to your principal by constantly sending her text messages, and have friends from your church donate pants to the school. Eh, blondie?
what role does the principal play in the teachers that are rifted?