Teacher turnover is a problem here in Jacksonville and all around the nation, rather than addressing that the Times Union today shilled for the district and parroted their all is well narrative.
The article titled, What Teacher Shortage, went down hill from there.
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-08-16/story/what-teacher-shortage-duval-and-nearby-districts-fill-nearly-all
As of today about one percent of teaching positions are vacant according to the district. If that is accurate then that's really pretty good, though if your child is going to be in one of those vacancy rooms you might disagree.
I acknowledge that the district was aggressive this year and they should even be applauded but when you boil it down all they did was fix a problem that they created. I also don't think it should be lost on anyone how the district changed their rules, a good thing, as for years the district had been needlessly letting go qualified teachers because they were out of field, to save some sixty teachers from being fired. If they wouldn't have done that then there would have been as many openings this year as there were last, a point glossed over by the Times Union
In late June there were 655 resignations and in early July 178 early retirements and both of those numbers surely went up though the Times Union didn't bother to tell us what the numbers ended up being. Then at the last school board meeting the district let go forty teachers who didn't bother to re-certify, the equivalent of a resignation if you ask me. That's ten percent of the teachers in the district gone, with just those numbers alone. Throw in scheduled retirements, leaves and the ever revolving door that Teach for America creates and now we are up to fifteen percent or more of teachers that had to be replaced.
Also wouldn't it have been nice to know how many experienced teachers we were replacing with inexperienced ones? the Times Union apparently doesn't believe experience matters either.
Again the district was aggressive filling positions and that's a good thing (and they got rid of a dumb rule which is an even better thing) but they had to be and they will have to be next year and every year after unless they chang their ways and where salary is low, that's not the way I am talking about.
Don't we deserve a paper that asks the tough questions and holds the district accountable? Well friends we did not get that today.
The article titled, What Teacher Shortage, went down hill from there.
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-08-16/story/what-teacher-shortage-duval-and-nearby-districts-fill-nearly-all
As of today about one percent of teaching positions are vacant according to the district. If that is accurate then that's really pretty good, though if your child is going to be in one of those vacancy rooms you might disagree.
I acknowledge that the district was aggressive this year and they should even be applauded but when you boil it down all they did was fix a problem that they created. I also don't think it should be lost on anyone how the district changed their rules, a good thing, as for years the district had been needlessly letting go qualified teachers because they were out of field, to save some sixty teachers from being fired. If they wouldn't have done that then there would have been as many openings this year as there were last, a point glossed over by the Times Union
In late June there were 655 resignations and in early July 178 early retirements and both of those numbers surely went up though the Times Union didn't bother to tell us what the numbers ended up being. Then at the last school board meeting the district let go forty teachers who didn't bother to re-certify, the equivalent of a resignation if you ask me. That's ten percent of the teachers in the district gone, with just those numbers alone. Throw in scheduled retirements, leaves and the ever revolving door that Teach for America creates and now we are up to fifteen percent or more of teachers that had to be replaced.
Also wouldn't it have been nice to know how many experienced teachers we were replacing with inexperienced ones? the Times Union apparently doesn't believe experience matters either.
Again the district was aggressive filling positions and that's a good thing (and they got rid of a dumb rule which is an even better thing) but they had to be and they will have to be next year and every year after unless they chang their ways and where salary is low, that's not the way I am talking about.
Don't we deserve a paper that asks the tough questions and holds the district accountable? Well friends we did not get that today.
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