Arlington Middle was hit incredibly hard by the surprise teacher surpluses Friday afternoon losing 12 teachers. I spoke to one veteran who was give a two minute phone call.
When they took the initiative to go meet the principal at the school they were reassigned to, the principal initially had no idea what they were talking about.
The following is an excerpt from our conversation. Note I edited some to protect the identity of the teacher.
First I asked about their conversation with the district.
The person said that "as you know Arlington is a state monitored school (which I did not know) and per the state list, your VAM scores indicate you need reassignment."
Then I tried to ask if they knew what my VAM scores and they said they did not know. The person also said, "if I had items at Arlington Middle, the school, the school would be open Saturday from 9-11 to retrieve my items. I would also be able to go after inservice and retrieve what was left."
It was a two minute phone call.
They told me to report to this new location effective immediately Monday at 8 am for inservice.
The person did not tell me if my assignment was permanent or temporary. I went to the orientation for the freshmen as I wanted to meet the principal and he had no idea until I met up with him that same night. He was able to find out and tell me that this is a temporary position and that I was just to report on Monday and they will find something for me to do.
They are going to find something for them to do... sigh... I have no doubt the state of Florida did the district no favors. I believe they want us and these schools to fail so they can push their pro charter agenda. That being said, the district took a bad situation and made it much worse.
We have to do better as a district if we want to reach our potential, we have to.
When they took the initiative to go meet the principal at the school they were reassigned to, the principal initially had no idea what they were talking about.
The following is an excerpt from our conversation. Note I edited some to protect the identity of the teacher.
First I asked about their conversation with the district.
The person said that "as you know Arlington is a state monitored school (which I did not know) and per the state list, your VAM scores indicate you need reassignment."
Then I tried to ask if they knew what my VAM scores and they said they did not know. The person also said, "if I had items at Arlington Middle, the school, the school would be open Saturday from 9-11 to retrieve my items. I would also be able to go after inservice and retrieve what was left."
It was a two minute phone call.
They told me to report to this new location effective immediately Monday at 8 am for inservice.
The person did not tell me if my assignment was permanent or temporary. I went to the orientation for the freshmen as I wanted to meet the principal and he had no idea until I met up with him that same night. He was able to find out and tell me that this is a temporary position and that I was just to report on Monday and they will find something for me to do.
They are going to find something for them to do... sigh... I have no doubt the state of Florida did the district no favors. I believe they want us and these schools to fail so they can push their pro charter agenda. That being said, the district took a bad situation and made it much worse.
We have to do better as a district if we want to reach our potential, we have to.
Q: What do VAM scores & fertilizer have in common? A: They're both full of shite. Seriously google it!
ReplyDeleteI had an open contract and was informed Friday at 4 that I had been placed, contact info was the school phone number. Big help. No mention of assignment, time to report,etc. Finally located principal's email and got a time. After specifying that I only wanted ESE, I was placed in 2nd grade. Told the Principal, nope. Told the district no thanks. Just checked the 8/7 vacancy list, there is an ESE vacancy at the school I was placed. What?
ReplyDeleteFeel like I dodged a bullet. I will find some other work. Too bad, because I would have brought 18 yrs of experience in a variety of ESE classrooms.
Thanks for your blog.
This is Jason Rantala at First Coast News. Would love to talk with you about the teacher reassignments if you're free. Give me a call 904-626-2934. Thanks.
DeleteJason Rantala....you might want to do some investigative journalism because the data on certain subjects going down, but teachers of another subject were the ones surplus. The whole department of one school was surplus, but the admins were not held accountable for that. Teachers are forced to do what they are told so whatever was done to those teachers should be done to the admins as well. Dig deeper. The data is very revealing.
ReplyDelete