Did you hear about the recent going away party for retirees? Not only was the menu stale cheese balls and kool-aid, but Dr. White left early to go to a basketball game and told the retirees his staff got to eat first.
The game was a fund raiser last weekend at Manual. The Van Arsdale twins were there. I saw this on the IPS Home Page, Channels 8 and 13 news, and the Indy Star.
I would never expect quality refreshments at anything sponsored by IPS, and, IMO, White's departure would truly brighten every occasion!
Oh, there are quality refreshments served at lots of IPS events, it is just you, I, kids, parents,community members, and teachers are never invited to these events.
All you need to do is look at the Title One money spent on administrative retreats during the summer, they had to have eaten well...
Nope. I said I would never expect any, so stale cheese balls and kool-aid would not surprise me.
The year I earned ABCD recognition, the "dinner" resembled something scraped from a Banquet tv dinner, except the tv dinner would have been somewhat edible. Now, the Golden Apple at Indiana Roof? Open bar, ice sculpture, fresh cheese, chocolate-dipped strawberries, fabulous five-course meal, fresh flowers, flambe' dessert, followed by a two-thousand dollar check made out to ME! Oh, I forgot. This is sponsored by IPALCO, not IPS.
You mean a school function served something that resembled school food and not something that resembled a corporate shindig? Um, okay. I went to McDonald's and got a cheap hamburger and went to Ruth's Chris and got a good steak.
The blog meister continues to prove he is not an IPS employee or even married to one. Hell, he isn't even in the 'know'.
There was no retiree dinner. There was an employee recognition reception for those with 5 - 45 years of service to the district (years celebrated at five year increments). And there was no Kool-Aid or "stale" anything served, the finger foods were prepared fresh by students in Tech's CTM Culinary Arts program. Dumbass.
I went to the celebration for years of service a couple years ago and it was delicious. Tech's culinary department made the food. I was impressed. The gift? Wellllllll......I didn't get into education for money or gifts.
Oh think back to the mandatory and unpaid (you were required to attend) awards given to those with perfect attendance. IPS a world class institutions...I still cherish my dog show ribbon...
I have worked here for 16 years and I have NEVER received any recognition. I had to call human resources to ask about why I never got any pins. She said she'd let them know to add me to the list. Still waiting for my pin.
What do you folks expect? No money from the state. Tax abatements, property tax caps, much of the money handed over to private corporations and chatter schools. We still have schools without air conditioning that don't meet the federal handicapped standards that have the same desks and chairs when Dick Lugar went to school at IPS. The Governor and corporate media have cleverly misinformed the rest of the public that we have PLENTY of money and need no more. Besides all of this we are the lowest paid teachers in the county...way behind Wayne Township. It's only going to get worse. Talk to state employees about how things are since Mitch's reign. Dog show ribbons and leftover cattle barn dinners will look good compared to what the state has in store for us.
IPS receives more money per student than any district in the state. Verifiable fact. The problem is within IPS. They mismanage the money and it doesn't reach the classroom. Laws are finally being passed to let parents put their kids in schools where the money will actually reach the classroom. That's a good thing. And if you had the sense that God gave a goat, you'd realize what a self-serving fool you look like every time you use the phrase "chatter school" or "chatter skool."
Evidently Ariel Bender has been posting here. Why, you may (or may not) ask? I see the use of 'private corporations' and 'chatter schools' in the same sentence in an above post. Ariel, you really need to get some new material.
Eugene White hates teachers. Why would he provide a respectable appetizers or even stay to associate with what he considers to be he riff raff of IPS. The only teachers he likes are the ones related to him.
It speaks to the way teachers are viewed, we are not seen as professionals. Do you think that when your doctor goes to an AMA conference or meeting they ask "Can you bring some brownies?"
Oh you never should have said Cattle Barn, it will give Eugene ideas...a perfect place to hold an event for people he seems to view as no smarter than the average holstein.
Isn't that his view of the Bobble-Head Board? The smell from recent policies give hint to their location. (Or did we just step in something unpleasant...again?)
Don't be ridiculous, IPS can't close those schools even if there are no students...where would all the administrators go? From the rumor mill, Shortridge is getting a new art teacher even though they are mentioned as being at only 40% enrollment. "Shortridge Magnet School is expected to be at 40 percent capacity." Even when they aren't administrators Eugene's friends need to be taken care of.
Seriously, you are complaining about not receiving a good meal or a pin?! How about the reward of 30 years of impacting young children!?
Teachers really need to get over their attitude. They feel as if they deserve everything. Newsflash, you don't! (Unless, you are a great teacher. But typically those are the people that don't expect everything and are happy with student success.)
It's time to close some schools. Get rid of many of the unnecessary administrators. Do we really need so many asst superintendents, directors etc? Why do we keep eliminating the people who impact student success? Poor management.
Look for many of these failed administrators to be standing in front of children this coming fall. Can you imagine having Prunie as your teacher...poor children.
I propose we put Kay Kelly in a nun's habit and transfer her to Cathedral. I can envision her there, but I can't imagine her walking down the halls of Arlington.
When administrators don't deal with children on a daily basis they quickly forget how to do it. I went to a manifestation of a SPED kid and the administrator who was in charge asked the student (who was an MO kid) questions so quickly and in such developmentally inappropriate language the students quickly felt like he was being teased and became hostile. I had to take him out in the hall, calm him down and tell him only to listen to me, she'd ask the question, I'd rephrase it, and he'd answer....what the heck is with this type of thing?
Times are hard, Dr. White needs that $5,000 for his clothing allowance! I am sadden by the way the Board Members treated retiring teachers, they have a nice dinner each time they attend a Board Meeting.
Eugene White treats teachers like crap all year long. Why would you expect him to treat teachers with dignity at a retirement dinner or a ceremony recognizing years of service. The only employees he values are the ones related to him.
Many retirement parties are school based...you should have seen the lovely event at BRHS that happened at the end of the 2009. Beautiful, everyone got an invitation and the food and entertainment was lovely.
Sarah Bogard treats retiring teachers like red headed step children. She almost does cartwheels celebrating their departure. She even schedules the retirement celebration during the day when most are in class. What a slap in the face and what a rude, crude way to treat veteran teachers. One can only hope when the ancient principal finally retires that she is treated the same way.
A school superintendent in Michigan has written a public letter to the editor asking Governor Rick Snyder if his school can become a prison instead. The full text is below. What do you think?
—-
Dear Governor Snyder,
In these tough economic times, schools are hurting. And yes, everyone in Michigan is hurting right now financially, but why aren’t we protecting schools? Schools are the one place on Earth that people look to to “fix” what is wrong with society by educating our youth and preparing them to take on the issues that society has created.
One solution I believe we must do is take a look at our corrections system in Michigan. We rank nationally at the top in the number of people we incarcerate. We also spend the most money per prisoner annually than any other state in the union. Now, I like to be at the top of lists, but this is one ranking that I don’t believe Michigan wants to be on top of.
Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children.
This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding. Please give my students three meals a day. Please give my children access to free health care. Please provide my school district Internet access and computers. Please put books in my library. Please give my students a weight room so we can be big and strong. We provide all of these things to prisoners because they have constitutional rights. What about the rights of youth, our future?!
Please provide for my students in my school district the same way we provide for a prisoner. It’s the least we can do to prepare our students for the future...by giving our schools the resources necessary to keep our students OUT of prison.
Respectfully submitted,
Nathan Bootz, Superintendent, Ithaca Public Schools
We need to get rid of over half of the elected officials in the state. Whoever Daniels endorses for governor, don't vote for that lackey, and Bennett can go back to the down-state backwater he came from. Then while we're at it, we can start getting rid of the bobble-headed idiots we have on the school board that have not had an original thought across their multi-year tenures. I thank God I'm not a native Hoosier, because I would be truly embarrassed by the incompetents that keep getting elected. Then again, I remember the dictum that an electorate deserves who they elect. Damn, we need one-term term limits.
Yeah, go ahead and piss and moan about why you're smart and everyone is stupid and completely ignore the reasons that people have voted for Daniels and Bennett in the first place. Talk about having no insight into the community you serve?! Jeesh, could you possibly be more clueless? I hope and pray you are just some bitter ex-cafeteria worker and that you don't actually interact with children!
I'm a pretty loyal Democrat, but I think you're kidding yourself if you think a different governor or superintendent would make a difference in education reform. It's a national bipartisan trend and it's being pushed hard by our Democrat president.
If you think that the voters voted for Daniels and Bennett for their ideas on education reform then you are delusinal. Neither have a clue. Remember that Bennett was a superintendent of a failing school corporation. If a person cannot run one small rural school system, how can they preside over the entire state. He is a failure and the votes had no idea when they voted for him.
"I see the use of 'private corporations' and 'chatter schools' in the same sentence in an above post. You really need to get some new material."
And yet this from the same crowd that probably chants, "vouchers, choice, merit pay, under performing, bad teachers, etc." Talk about new material pal.The corporate media and it's lobbyists have their own over-used slang as well. These solutions have been around for years with NO change to the country's educational climate. There are people in this blog that are using it to destroy downtown when those of us who KNOW how corporation operate in this country know better. While downtown has its enemies, a state takeover by a former football coach whose OWN school district did no better with far easier kids- is scary. When comedians on the radio tout state schools in Florida and Louisiana as "model" operations in education reform then we are headed for trouble. I've talked to people in those states and have heard nothing good about education in those places- from parents or teachers. I want to see what happens when the state takes over and NOTHING changes other than someone makes a profit like The Mind Rust. Then we'll see WHO needs to come up with new material.
Why do YOU think people voted for Bennett? And the state is overwhelmingly supportive of Daniels' education agenda. You and I can find that disturbing all we want, we can accuse the public of being uninformed or brainwashed or what-have-you. But even so, they're not going to suddenly change their views by next year. In fact, I'd say it's the other way around, that some of the ideas that seemed radical a couple of years ago are becoming the norm, to the point that I can't imagine the public would ever vote to return. Again, I think this is bigger than Bennett and Daniels. I think they just happen to be the people who were in office when Indiana made the changes it did. But the whole country is making similar changes, so right or wrong, I think it does reflect the will of the public.
Remember that Bennett was a superintendent of a failing school corporation. If a person cannot run one small rural school system, how can they preside over the entire state. He is a failure and the votes had no idea when they voted for him
Very well said! If he had so much knowledge about running a school district, his own would have been more of a success. Furthermore, we had 'visitors' from the state in our building recently. The students calculated they were in our classrooms three minutes tops! What do you suppose they could learn in such a short time to write in their evil little reports?
Like others have said, this isn't ABOUT Bennett. He wasn't voted to rule over Indiana schools like a king. Nobody cares how his school district did (although I think your claims are grossly exaggerated.) He was voted in because Indiana wanted education reforms, and he promised to do it. It's as simple as that.
It doesn't matter what I think about the recent changes (which I certainly don't think are "his proposals.") The point is most of the people in this country seem to believe that more choice and fewer unions will improve public education. You and I can go back and forth on the Internet all day long, but it doesn't matter what we think. We're the minority.
Please read the conclusion of the story in the Star about school 61...this is what we need, fair and honest assessments of the problems we face and a whole lot less blaming teachers for not solving the world's problems. There is blame in the piece, but is is more universal, these are the problems now what are we going to do to solve them? We being society as a whole, and standing around blaming teachers is not the answer...
The formulation of problem is often more essential than it’s solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills Einstein
I know you'll disagree, but I think school choice (vouchers, charter schools, expansion and marketing of magnet programs) will help parental involvement. I'm seeing it in my own neighborhood. It's not that most parents didn't care, it's that they didn't believe their participation made a difference. And for the most part, they were right. Things are different now, and parents are becoming more involved and thinking about "good schools" in a way they were powerless to consider before. I think this will keep improving until eventually, the only children failing in IPS will be the ones that would fail in any school in the state.
So as a society we should just throw our hands in the air and say "parents who care will get their kids out of these schools and into vouchers, charters, and magnet programs, the rest be damned, the sins of the parents are visited on the children." When IPS did "select schools" only about 4% of parents even chose a school, most chose by where they lived...
I was out with my dog and ran into a little boy, about 5 and asked where he went, and he named a charter school...I asked if it was a good school, and he said "When we make good choices they give us candy." I asked him do you make good choices when the teacher isn't there? and he said "No, not if there isn't candy."
Research and data tells us that a reward driven model often backfires and doesn't teach either good behavior or intrinsic motivation, not to say this doesn't happen in IPS schools, but it just goes to the point that everything happening in charter schools isn't perfect either.
A) If 50 kids are failing and you save 40 of the, you are not wronging the other 10. They were already failing. They're still failing. No harm, no foul. But 80% of your failing kids are now not failing. Wonderful. Rah-rah. Yay. Celebrate! B) Nobody believes your dog-walking story. You think charter schools get results by bribing children, so you assigned a "confession" to a made-up 5-year-old. (Besides, what kind of creepy adult approaches a small child and grills them about their school?) And I'm not anti-IPS; my kids go to an IPS magnet. But for every anti-charter example you can name, I guarantee someone else can come up with an anti-IPS example. The whole point of "choice" is that parents get to decide for themselves.
IPS teachers think any sort of contingency management, intervention, or accommodation is bribery. IPS teachers look at the 14 rungs on Smith and Rivera's Ladder of Interventions and start screaming "No! No! Punish and exclusion only. Punish and exclusion only." But don't you dare accuse them of being stuck in the past.
First of all the child approached me, I was sitting in a public park reading with my dog. Because I am interested in schools I always talk to kids who talk to me, so when a five year old, and his little brother and sister came up and started to talk to me and wanted to pet my dog, I talked to them. I happen to be a central office person so I like to hear about what schools are good and which ones aren't, straight from the horses mouth.
Personally I have nothing against charter schools. I just want great schools for the kids who don't for what ever reason get into charter schools or magnets. Was it you who would condemn children "the only children failing in IPS will be the ones that would fail in any school in the state." Why should any child fail?
What do you mean "why should any child fail?" Are you saying if school choice can't save ALL the kids from failing, it shouldn't be allowed to save any of them? Because that's kind of fucked up, isn't it?
Look, you lack logic skills, as well as a vocabulary. Do not put words in my mouth. I hope you don't have any children because they do not need to be exposed to vulgar language. As my students would say, "Do you use that mouth to kiss your Mama?" I am done with you.
I posted "the only children failing in IPS" but didn't post the comment with the f-word (gasp). But if you didn't mean what that poster said, than I'm not sure I get your meaning either. If IPS can do more with these kids, why aren't they? And if they can't, what's wrong with letting another school try?
If IPS can do more with these kids, why aren't they? And if they can't, what's wrong with letting another school try?
Do you even read this blog, or do you just spout off about how great chartes are?
What is wrong with Charters? They siphon off money from public education, without public control. And a small amount of research will show you that behind the non-profit charter is the for profit company pulling the strings... they do a great job convincing parents they offer something better and brighter, when in fact they don't offer the miracle they promise.
As to why IPS can't do better with kids... corrupt administration, teachers who are like beaten dogs, everything documented in Kings article about school 61 Kindergarten. IPS administration is so far away from the front line they can't even identify the problem, much less help solve it. Every "solution" offered by White etal. has been nothing but cosmetic and a statistical manipulation. Teachers who love and care about the kids in IPS cry every day to see what is happening.
"Corrupt administration and manipulation of statistics"
You've nailed that one to a T. I did some research on every 8th grade child in my buiding a few years ago as part of a Master's project. The average grade level performance in math was sitting at 5.8 grade level equivalent when it should have been at an 8.2 for the given time of year. The only reason it was that high was because we had some algebra students in the 8th grade. Needless to say it was not a bell curve distribution. At the time we were being told that the students were typically about a year behind and we could bring them up. I checked with my peers in the other buildings, and heard the same story. This was nowhere near what the party line was saying, and we were seeing bogus box and whisker plots, and quartile distributions that had no basis in reality, unless you stretched it way thin and played incredibly fast and loose with the data interpretation. You can make your mind up whether the public was being lied to shamelessly, or if someone in the puzzle palace was completely ignorant of descriptive statistics. My own gut feeling is that it was both.
Basketball season is long over. Date please?
ReplyDeleteThe game was a fund raiser last weekend at Manual. The Van Arsdale twins were there. I saw this on the IPS Home Page, Channels 8 and 13 news, and the Indy Star.
ReplyDeleteI would never expect quality refreshments at anything sponsored by IPS, and, IMO, White's departure would truly brighten every occasion!
Seriously. You're complaining about "quality refreshments" ?!! Are you on drugs?!
ReplyDeleteOh, there are quality refreshments served at lots of IPS events, it is just you, I, kids, parents,community members, and teachers are never invited to these events.
ReplyDeleteAll you need to do is look at the Title One money spent on administrative retreats during the summer, they had to have eaten well...
Back to the "cheesy" topics.
ReplyDelete@Seriously. You're complaining about "quality refreshments" ?!! Are you on drugs?!
ReplyDeleteNo. I just like to w(h)ine.
"You're complaining about "quality refreshments""
ReplyDeleteNope. I said I would never expect any, so stale cheese balls and kool-aid would not surprise me.
The year I earned ABCD recognition, the "dinner" resembled something scraped from a Banquet tv dinner, except the tv dinner would have been somewhat edible. Now, the Golden Apple at Indiana Roof? Open bar, ice sculpture, fresh cheese, chocolate-dipped strawberries, fabulous five-course meal, fresh flowers, flambe' dessert, followed by a two-thousand dollar check made out to ME! Oh, I forgot. This is sponsored by IPALCO, not IPS.
You mean a school function served something that resembled school food and not something that resembled a corporate shindig? Um, okay. I went to McDonald's and got a cheap hamburger and went to Ruth's Chris and got a good steak.
ReplyDeleteThe blog meister continues to prove he is not an IPS employee or even married to one. Hell, he isn't even in the 'know'.
ReplyDeleteThere was no retiree dinner. There was an employee recognition reception for those with 5 - 45 years of service to the district (years celebrated at five year increments). And there was no Kool-Aid or "stale" anything served, the finger foods were prepared fresh by students in Tech's CTM Culinary Arts program. Dumbass.
I went to the celebration for years of service a couple years ago and it was delicious. Tech's culinary department made the food. I was impressed. The gift? Wellllllll......I didn't get into education for money or gifts.
ReplyDeleteMy friend received a watch for 25 years of service and said the food was great!
ReplyDeleteAll I received for 25 years was a pin. I guess things have changed since 2005.
ReplyDeleteYou get nothing for 30 years. The next is 35. I guess they hope you quit or retire or die in that decade.
Sucks for me.
Oh think back to the mandatory and unpaid (you were required to attend) awards given to those with perfect attendance. IPS a world class institutions...I still cherish my dog show ribbon...
ReplyDeleteI always thought mine was leftover from the cattle barn at the state fair.
ReplyDeleteThe movie, "Teachers" is on right now. It's amazing what HASN'T changed since 1984....except we no longer have ditto machines.
ReplyDeleteI have worked here for 16 years and I have NEVER received any recognition. I had to call human resources to ask about why I never got any pins. She said she'd let them know to add me to the list. Still waiting for my pin.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you folks expect? No money from the state. Tax abatements, property tax caps, much of the money handed over to private corporations and chatter schools. We still have schools without air conditioning that don't meet the federal handicapped standards that have the same desks and chairs when Dick Lugar went to school at IPS. The Governor and corporate media have cleverly misinformed the rest of the public that we have PLENTY of money and need no more. Besides all of this we are the lowest paid teachers in the county...way behind Wayne Township. It's only going to get worse. Talk to state employees about how things are since Mitch's reign. Dog show ribbons and leftover cattle barn dinners will look good compared to what the state has in store for us.
ReplyDeleteIPS receives more money per student than any district in the state. Verifiable fact. The problem is within IPS. They mismanage the money and it doesn't reach the classroom. Laws are finally being passed to let parents put their kids in schools where the money will actually reach the classroom. That's a good thing. And if you had the sense that God gave a goat, you'd realize what a self-serving fool you look like every time you use the phrase "chatter school" or "chatter skool."
ReplyDeleteEvidently Ariel Bender has been posting here. Why, you may (or may not) ask? I see the use of 'private corporations' and 'chatter schools' in the same sentence in an above post. Ariel, you really need to get some new material.
ReplyDeleteYes but working in Wayne township is like hell on earth. Lost $5000 a year when I transferred from Wayne to IPS. Still don't regret it.
ReplyDeletesmdh
ReplyDeleteEugene White hates teachers. Why would he provide a respectable appetizers or even stay to associate with what he considers to be he riff raff of IPS. The only teachers he likes are the ones related to him.
ReplyDeleteIt speaks to the way teachers are viewed, we are not seen as professionals. Do you think that when your doctor goes to an AMA conference or meeting they ask "Can you bring some brownies?"
ReplyDeleteRe: smdh
ReplyDeleteWTF?
smdh=Shaking My Damn Head
ReplyDeleteOh you never should have said Cattle Barn, it will give Eugene ideas...a perfect place to hold an event for people he seems to view as no smarter than the average holstein.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that his view of the Bobble-Head Board? The smell from recent policies give hint to their location. (Or did we just step in something unpleasant...again?)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theindychannel.com/news/27942400/detail.html
ReplyDeleteDon't be ridiculous, IPS can't close those schools even if there are no students...where would all the administrators go? From the rumor mill, Shortridge is getting a new art teacher even though they are mentioned as being at only 40% enrollment. "Shortridge Magnet School is expected to be at 40 percent capacity." Even when they aren't administrators Eugene's friends need to be taken care of.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, you are complaining about not receiving a good meal or a pin?! How about the reward of 30 years of impacting young children!?
ReplyDeleteTeachers really need to get over their attitude. They feel as if they deserve everything. Newsflash, you don't! (Unless, you are a great teacher. But typically those are the people that don't expect everything and are happy with student success.)
It's time to close some schools. Get rid of many of the unnecessary administrators. Do we really need so many asst superintendents, directors etc? Why do we keep eliminating the people who impact student success? Poor management.
ReplyDeleteLook for many of these failed administrators to be standing in front of children this coming fall.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine having Prunie as your teacher...poor children.
Send Prunie to Arlington Community High School at 7:30 A.M. and she would probably die by 3:30 P.M. Kay Kelly would be dead by Noon.
ReplyDeleteKay Kelly wouldn't last through 2nd period class at Arlington. They'd chew her up and spit her out w/in 2 hours.
ReplyDeleteSo I hear Arlington is being taken over by the state....let's see how well they do.
ReplyDeleteI propose we put Kay Kelly in a nun's habit and transfer her to Cathedral. I can envision her there, but I can't imagine her walking down the halls of Arlington.
ReplyDeleteWhen administrators don't deal with children on a daily basis they quickly forget how to do it. I went to a manifestation of a SPED kid and the administrator who was in charge asked the student (who was an MO kid) questions so quickly and in such developmentally inappropriate language the students quickly felt like he was being teased and became hostile. I had to take him out in the hall, calm him down and tell him only to listen to me, she'd ask the question, I'd rephrase it, and he'd answer....what the heck is with this type of thing?
ReplyDeleteI have been to about 100 IPS events including retirement gatherings. Never have I been served kool-aid or cheese balls.
ReplyDeleteTimes are hard, Dr. White needs that $5,000 for his clothing allowance! I am sadden by the way the Board Members treated retiring teachers, they have a nice dinner each time they attend a Board Meeting.
ReplyDeleteEugene White treats teachers like crap all year long. Why would you expect him to treat teachers with dignity at a retirement dinner or a ceremony recognizing years of service. The only employees he values are the ones related to him.
ReplyDeleteMany retirement parties are school based...you should have seen the lovely event at BRHS that happened at the end of the 2009. Beautiful, everyone got an invitation and the food and entertainment was lovely.
ReplyDeleteSarah Bogard treats retiring teachers like red headed step children. She almost does cartwheels celebrating their departure. She even schedules the retirement celebration during the day when most are in class. What a slap in the face and what a rude, crude way to treat veteran teachers. One can only hope when the ancient principal finally retires that she is treated the same way.
ReplyDeleteA school superintendent in Michigan has written a public letter to the editor asking Governor Rick Snyder if his school can become a prison instead. The full text is below. What do you think?
ReplyDelete—-
Dear Governor Snyder,
In these tough economic times, schools are hurting. And yes, everyone in Michigan is hurting right now financially, but why aren’t we protecting schools? Schools are the one place on Earth that people look to to “fix” what is wrong with society by educating our youth and preparing them to take on the issues that society has created.
One solution I believe we must do is take a look at our corrections system in Michigan. We rank nationally at the top in the number of people we incarcerate. We also spend the most money per prisoner annually than any other state in the union. Now, I like to be at the top of lists, but this is one ranking that I don’t believe Michigan wants to be on top of.
Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children.
This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding. Please give my students three meals a day. Please give my children access to free health care. Please provide my school district Internet access and computers. Please put books in my library. Please give my students a weight room so we can be big and strong. We provide all of these things to prisoners because they have constitutional rights. What about the rights of youth, our future?!
Please provide for my students in my school district the same way we provide for a prisoner. It’s the least we can do to prepare our students for the future...by giving our schools the resources necessary to keep our students OUT of prison.
Respectfully submitted,
Nathan Bootz, Superintendent, Ithaca Public Schools
I think IPS should be ashamed. We get twice the student funding as Ithica Public Schools, and we still don't have many of those things!
ReplyDeleteWe need to get rid of Eugene White.
ReplyDeleteWe need to get rid of over half of the elected officials in the state. Whoever Daniels endorses for governor, don't vote for that lackey, and Bennett can go back to the down-state backwater he came from. Then while we're at it, we can start getting rid of the bobble-headed idiots we have on the school board that have not had an original thought across their multi-year tenures. I thank God I'm not a native Hoosier, because I would be truly embarrassed by the incompetents that keep getting elected. Then again, I remember the dictum that an electorate deserves who they elect. Damn, we need one-term term limits.
ReplyDeleteYeah, go ahead and piss and moan about why you're smart and everyone is stupid and completely ignore the reasons that people have voted for Daniels and Bennett in the first place. Talk about having no insight into the community you serve?! Jeesh, could you possibly be more clueless? I hope and pray you are just some bitter ex-cafeteria worker and that you don't actually interact with children!
ReplyDeleteI'm a pretty loyal Democrat, but I think you're kidding yourself if you think a different governor or superintendent would make a difference in education reform. It's a national bipartisan trend and it's being pushed hard by our Democrat president.
ReplyDeleteIf you think that the voters voted for Daniels and Bennett for their ideas on education reform then you are delusinal. Neither have a clue.
ReplyDeleteRemember that Bennett was a superintendent of a failing school corporation. If a person cannot run one small rural school system, how can they preside over the entire state. He is a failure and the votes had no idea when they voted for him.
"I see the use of 'private corporations' and 'chatter schools' in the same sentence in an above post. You really need to get some new material."
ReplyDeleteAnd yet this from the same crowd that probably chants, "vouchers, choice, merit pay, under performing, bad teachers, etc." Talk about new material pal.The corporate media and it's lobbyists have their own over-used slang as well. These solutions have been around for years with NO change to the country's educational climate. There are people in this blog that are using it to destroy downtown when those of us who KNOW how corporation operate in this country know better. While downtown has its enemies, a state takeover by a former football coach whose OWN school district did no better with far easier kids- is scary. When comedians on the radio tout state schools in Florida and Louisiana as "model" operations in education reform then we are headed for trouble. I've talked to people in those states and have heard nothing good about education in those places- from parents or teachers. I want to see what happens when the state takes over and NOTHING changes other than someone makes a profit like The Mind Rust. Then we'll see WHO needs to come up with new material.
Why do YOU think people voted for Bennett? And the state is overwhelmingly supportive of Daniels' education agenda. You and I can find that disturbing all we want, we can accuse the public of being uninformed or brainwashed or what-have-you. But even so, they're not going to suddenly change their views by next year. In fact, I'd say it's the other way around, that some of the ideas that seemed radical a couple of years ago are becoming the norm, to the point that I can't imagine the public would ever vote to return. Again, I think this is bigger than Bennett and Daniels. I think they just happen to be the people who were in office when Indiana made the changes it did. But the whole country is making similar changes, so right or wrong, I think it does reflect the will of the public.
ReplyDeleteRemember that Bennett was a superintendent of a failing school corporation. If a person cannot run one small rural school system, how can they preside over the entire state. He is a failure and the votes had no idea when they voted for him
ReplyDeleteVery well said! If he had so much knowledge about running a school district, his own would have been more of a success. Furthermore, we had 'visitors' from the state in our building recently. The students calculated they were in our classrooms three minutes tops! What do you suppose they could learn in such a short time to write in their evil little reports?
Like others have said, this isn't ABOUT Bennett. He wasn't voted to rule over Indiana schools like a king. Nobody cares how his school district did (although I think your claims are grossly exaggerated.) He was voted in because Indiana wanted education reforms, and he promised to do it. It's as simple as that.
ReplyDeleteWhat reforms has be proposed so far do you think will be effective?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter what I think about the recent changes (which I certainly don't think are "his proposals.") The point is most of the people in this country seem to believe that more choice and fewer unions will improve public education. You and I can go back and forth on the Internet all day long, but it doesn't matter what we think. We're the minority.
ReplyDeletePlease read the conclusion of the story in the Star about school 61...this is what we need, fair and honest assessments of the problems we face and a whole lot less blaming teachers for not solving the world's problems. There is blame in the piece, but is is more universal, these are the problems now what are we going to do to solve them? We being society as a whole, and standing around blaming teachers is not the answer...
ReplyDeleteThe formulation of problem is often more essential than it’s solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills Einstein
I know you'll disagree, but I think school choice (vouchers, charter schools, expansion and marketing of magnet programs) will help parental involvement. I'm seeing it in my own neighborhood. It's not that most parents didn't care, it's that they didn't believe their participation made a difference. And for the most part, they were right. Things are different now, and parents are becoming more involved and thinking about "good schools" in a way they were powerless to consider before. I think this will keep improving until eventually, the only children failing in IPS will be the ones that would fail in any school in the state.
ReplyDeleteSo as a society we should just throw our hands in the air and say "parents who care will get their kids out of these schools and into vouchers, charters, and magnet programs, the rest be damned, the sins of the parents are visited on the children." When IPS did "select schools" only about 4% of parents even chose a school, most chose by where they lived...
ReplyDeleteI was out with my dog and ran into a little boy, about 5 and asked where he went, and he named a charter school...I asked if it was a good school, and he said "When we make good choices they give us candy." I asked him do you make good choices when the teacher isn't there? and he said "No, not if there isn't candy."
Research and data tells us that a reward driven model often backfires and doesn't teach either good behavior or intrinsic motivation, not to say this doesn't happen in IPS schools, but it just goes to the point that everything happening in charter schools isn't perfect either.
A) If 50 kids are failing and you save 40 of the, you are not wronging the other 10. They were already failing. They're still failing. No harm, no foul. But 80% of your failing kids are now not failing. Wonderful. Rah-rah. Yay. Celebrate!
ReplyDeleteB) Nobody believes your dog-walking story. You think charter schools get results by bribing children, so you assigned a "confession" to a made-up 5-year-old. (Besides, what kind of creepy adult approaches a small child and grills them about their school?) And I'm not anti-IPS; my kids go to an IPS magnet. But for every anti-charter example you can name, I guarantee someone else can come up with an anti-IPS example. The whole point of "choice" is that parents get to decide for themselves.
Late night this late Friday a phone call was made. The deal is done, the state will be taking over July 1 of this year.
ReplyDeleteIPS teachers think any sort of contingency management, intervention, or accommodation is bribery. IPS teachers look at the 14 rungs on Smith and Rivera's Ladder of Interventions and start screaming "No! No! Punish and exclusion only. Punish and exclusion only." But don't you dare accuse them of being stuck in the past.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all the child approached me, I was sitting in a public park reading with my dog. Because I am interested in schools I always talk to kids who talk to me, so when a five year old, and his little brother and sister came up and started to talk to me and wanted to pet my dog, I talked to them. I happen to be a central office person so I like to hear about what schools are good and which ones aren't, straight from the horses mouth.
ReplyDeletePersonally I have nothing against charter schools. I just want great schools for the kids who don't for what ever reason get into charter schools or magnets. Was it you who would condemn children "the only children failing in IPS will be the ones that would fail in any school in the state." Why should any child fail?
What do you mean "why should any child fail?" Are you saying if school choice can't save ALL the kids from failing, it shouldn't be allowed to save any of them? Because that's kind of fucked up, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteLook, you lack logic skills, as well as a vocabulary. Do not put words in my mouth. I hope you don't have any children because they do not need to be exposed to vulgar language. As my students would say, "Do you use that mouth to kiss your Mama?" I am done with you.
ReplyDeleteI posted "the only children failing in IPS" but didn't post the comment with the f-word (gasp). But if you didn't mean what that poster said, than I'm not sure I get your meaning either. If IPS can do more with these kids, why aren't they? And if they can't, what's wrong with letting another school try?
ReplyDeleteSo the DOE will be taking over four schools for the fall, well with the huge sub pool of very experienced teacher, take your sick days without fail.
ReplyDeleteNot only is the State taking over 4 schools, the city is taking over the Police Department. So there will not be any police in the buildings.
ReplyDeleteOh great, the police at Arlington already wear Kevlar everyday....are the teachers going to get these vests for when the police leave?
ReplyDeleteIf IPS can do more with these kids, why aren't they? And if they can't, what's wrong with letting another school try?
ReplyDeleteDo you even read this blog, or do you just spout off about how great chartes are?
What is wrong with Charters? They siphon off money from public education, without public control. And a small amount of research will show you that behind the non-profit charter is the for profit company pulling the strings... they do a great job convincing parents they offer something better and brighter, when in fact they don't offer the miracle they promise.
As to why IPS can't do better with kids... corrupt administration, teachers who are like beaten dogs, everything documented in Kings article about school 61 Kindergarten. IPS administration is so far away from the front line they can't even identify the problem, much less help solve it. Every "solution" offered by White etal. has been nothing but cosmetic and a statistical manipulation. Teachers who love and care about the kids in IPS cry every day to see what is happening.
"Corrupt administration and manipulation of statistics"
ReplyDeleteYou've nailed that one to a T. I did some research on every 8th grade child in my buiding a few years ago as part of a Master's project. The average grade level performance in math was sitting at 5.8 grade level equivalent when it should have been at an 8.2 for the given time of year. The only reason it was that high was because we had some algebra students in the 8th grade. Needless to say it was not a bell curve distribution. At the time we were being told that the students were typically about a year behind and we could bring them up. I checked with my peers in the other buildings, and heard the same story. This was nowhere near what the party line was saying, and we were seeing bogus box and whisker plots, and quartile distributions that had no basis in reality, unless you stretched it way thin and played incredibly fast and loose with the data interpretation. You can make your mind up whether the public was being lied to shamelessly, or if someone in the puzzle palace was completely ignorant of descriptive statistics. My own gut feeling is that it was both.