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Sunday, August 18, 2013

How come nobody at the school board has a calendar?

Teachers get lead money to buy supplies and the district says the money will be dispersed by the 30th of September. I am really appreciative to receive a the fraction of money I will spend on my class but it would have been great as my bank account hits rock bottom, the consequence of not getting paid for over two months, to have gotten this money, oh before school began.

This isn’t the only thing the district has fallen down on either. I am told the CAST prê-tests will arrive sometime in September, some 2-5 weeks after school began, curriculum guides weren’t up as of this past Friday, you know the last day of pre planning and in the Times Union when talking about schools opening the super said, “textbooks should arrive at schools next week as well. “ http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-08-15/story/vitti-visit-raines-and-john-e-ford-first-day-school#ixzz2cMmMYqKy

Um what?!? The start of the school year has been on the books for years now! How didn’t they see any of this coming?

But perhaps most important is the bonus or raise teachers are going to get. The money made it to the district months ago and as far as I can tell there has been no movement. Nobody will even tell me if there have been talks and I am pointing my finger at the union on this one too. Too many teachers I know are paycheck to paycheck, this one included for the powers-that-be to be twiddling their thumbs. 

3 comments:

  1. Have you tried the new curriculum guide site? The CGs are not found via OnCourse or Riverdeep (now shut down). I had to ask someone on District staff where they were.

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  2. The Board voted to increase teacher pay at the last Board meeting. As far as the additional money from the Governor, that is still under negotiations. The biggest contention seems to be about whether that money should be going to teachers or if teachers only deserve a tiny amount so everyone else can have a piece.

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  3. Now I will take up the second issue, the $2500 raise that is only funded for one year. I can't blame the Super or Board for being prudent and saying that because they cannot rely on the State to provide the funding every year, they are unwilling to make the raise permanent and thus it becomes a bonus, despite what Governor Scott says on his FAQs about it.

    Our problem is that the legislature tied the money to being an effective or highly effective teacher on our latest evaluation. DCPS evaluations will not be final until the end of October when the student achievement number (50% of the evaluation) is determined and added to the observation part. We have to wait.

    The greater issue with this is that the student achievement number--the value added model--is not transparent. There is no explanation or data provided to show how the District calculated these numbers. It is not the same as learning gains on FCAT.

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