I sent the following letter to the superintendent and the school board, well the ones that don't threaten to sue me and call me a parasite that is.
Hello,
Numerous teachers reached out to me over the weekend to say
they were unexpectedly surplused late Friday afternoon.
I have no doubt that the state did the district no favors
but it also seems like the district took a bad and uncomfortable situation and
made it much worse.
One teacher told me they were given just a two-minute phone
call and another told me the person said, well a least you have a job. Another
teacher went to visit the principal at the school they were just assigned to
and they initially said, they had no idea what they were talking about but then
later said, we will find something for you to do. I don’t believe this is how
we should treat teachers.
As terrible as this is, I think it is also an opportunity to
let people know just how the state operates and how quite often it hurts
children. I have no doubt they could have given you any directive weeks ago
when solutions could more readily be found. Them waiting till now is unacceptable.
The people of Jacksonville need to know what the state is
forcing you to do. I believe people will be outraged at the harm this is going
to do to some of our most vulnerable schools and it should be asked if his is political
payback for talking about joining the HB 7060 lawsuit, something I and many
believe you should join. I would encourage you to meet with as much as the
media as you can and explain to them how bad this is for the teachers and
schools effected.
The mayor, the governor and the Duval delegation should also
be contacted and where I imagine some may have no sympathy at least you can get
their responses on the record and if they support these terrible last-minute
changes then let people know and hopefully during their next elections there
will be a consequence.
Finally, if you can’t rescind the surpluses/stand up to the
state, or you get no relief from our elected state officials, I sincerely hope
you have a do over with these teachers who had their lives throw into chaos and
reach out to them and make their transitions as smooth and painless as possible,
they deserve it.
As critical as I have been over the years, I think we have
amazing potential, but I believe we will never meet it, if we think it is okay
to treat teachers the way these teachers were treated.
Thank you
Chris Guerrieri
Yes, where will the District find teachers to fill these all-of-a-sudden vacancies at the state monitored schools? Here's my suggestion: recruit Scott Shine, Jason Fischer, Gary Chartrand and his friends, maybe throw in Lenny Curry and Jeb Bush! These men all claim to have knowledge of what it takes to be a great teacher, after all.
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine teachers at the schools to which the newly "surplussed" faculty members are sent feeling anything but empathy for them, "There but for the grace of God go I." Teachers know that V.A.M. scores are statistical legerdemain.