How Sh*tty does Duval County Public schools pay it's paras?

Two things, first we already know the District pays their teachers very poorly, we were something like 108 out of 115 in pay for large school districts.  Furthermore this is my 14th year as a teacher and I am fifteen thousand dollars below the national average. There hasn't been a raise in seven years and the district has withheld steps twice now over that same span. 

With all that being said, what we pay our paraprofessionals is not much different from how other districts and states pay their paras and it's a crying shame how little we give these employees. There may however be a little leeway as the district is looking at 32 extra million dollars next year. Sadly most of that comes from the three percent pay cut teachers too three years ago.

When talking about additional funding next year this is an idea Vitti had. 
From the Times Union: Among Vitti’s ideas: add 46 more paraprofessionals at a cost of $1 million. Similar to education aides, paraprofessionals in Duval spend 80 percent of their time helping students in class and 20 percent on other tasks.
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-01-14/story/duval-schools-look-forward-32-million-budget-boost

Are you freaking kidding me? We can hire 46 people, and when you add their salaries and benefits together that come to a million bucks?!? That's 21,739 dollars a person. That's not take home salary by the way, that's the whole kit and caboodle. That's what we are paying these people to take care of our children. That's shameful.

Next year the district is looking at an extra 32 million dollars and I believe we must use every penny of that not on more of Vitti's computer programs and not on more slots for his ever growing cabinet but on teacher and para pay.

Pro School Choice (privatization) group has a chief story teller!

Sometimes Step-up for Students, the states chief voucher supplier is honest even if unintentional,

From ReDefined Ed, SUFS propaganda blog: Public school options — especially those that emphasize the arts — got a shout out from Florida’s Teacher of Year, Christie Bassett, who leads the art department at Highlands Grove Elementary in Polk County.

“When parents have more say in where their children go to school, everybody wins,” she said, adding: “We love having choices in every area of our lives. Education should be no different.”

Step Up For Students Chief Storyteller Lisa Davis contributed reporting

http://www.redefinedonline.org/2015/01/thousands-celebrate-school-choice-jacksonville/

Wow what inspirational words from our Teacher of the Year, who must have taken a day off to come speak. We like choice when picking milk or shoes, so picking a school should be the same thing right? I hate to denigrate a teacher but how did this moron sell out get voted teacher of anything?

Anyhoo, I wanted to draw your attention to Lisa Davis, SUFS chief story teller, and since she is the chief one, it implys they have an entire team of story tellers, who contributed to the ReDefined Ed post. They need story tellers to peddle their propaganda, a team apparently. You see that's all they have, because when facts and evidence are applied to charter schools and vouchers the veneer quickly fades away.  

Does Duval have union problems?

From a reader:

Talk to an AP (no union for them) and you know that the supe is a wage-bustin' man. I'm not surprised the bargaining is hard. But our steps are not keeping up with increased prices. Since the last raise, not step, in the salary schedule--7 years ago--our standard of living has been declining. 

DCPS has the money. If Vitti can purchase a major program/curriculum like i-Ready for middle school in the middle of the year, he's stashing the money somewhere. When he lays off 160 security guards in the summer, crying the no-money blues, but can add two additional to my school in the middle of the year, he's got cash in his desk drawer. I'm sure others can contribute examples.

What sours the taste in employees' mouths is DTU giving up the "salary supplement," provided by the legislature for this year, without a whimper. And frankly, some of the zone reps have an arrogance when they condescend to meet with members at building sites that people are PO'd. I know one school where the members are getting up a petition to demand a change in zone rep. She won't meet with the members but pals around with the region super. The optics are terrible. The Brady regime is under scrutiny.

It's hard to feel bad for the families of Scholar Academy

The Duval County School Bard has voted to close the Scholar Learning Academy Charter School at the Bank of America building and this is what I have to say. 

I want to feel bad for these parents. I really do. But it's like trying to feel bad for people who smoke cigarettes for the health benefits and then are shocked and upset when they get cancer. It's like people who buy a long-haired dog and are upset that there's fur on the furniture. It's like people who hit themselves in the head with a hammer and complain about the headache.

Here are two things for charter school customers to remember, so they can avoid being shocked, stunned, angry or otherwise surprised in the future.

Charters are not run by elected school boards. They do not have to answer to the voters. They do not have to answer to the customers. They do not have to explain anything, and in some cases have gone to court to fight for their right to be just as non-transparent as they want to be. They are a business, and they don't have to show you their decision making process any more than McDonald's has to show you the recipe for their special sauce. 

Charters can close at any time for any reason. People seem to automatically associate the idea of a school with the idea of permanence. That's incorrect. Public schools are permanent. Charter schools are not. Public schools represent a community commitment to provide schooling as long as it's needed. Charter schools represent a business decision to operate as long as it makes sense. Enrolling your child in a charter is making a bet that the school will be in business as long as you want to send your child to it. If you lose the bet, you have to know that losing was always a possibility when you made the bet in the first place.

Considering a charter? Do your homework and understand the risks that come with choosing a charter. Pro tip: "doing your homework" does not mean "listening to charter sales pitch and nothing else." That's like getting info about the car you want to buy only from the salesman trying to sell it to you.

I believe it's possible to find charters that do a pretty okay job out there, but any charter comes with certainly fundamental differences from public school, and some come with differences that can be shocking or stunning if you haven't been paying attention. Bottom line? Charter schools are not created to be just like public schools-- and they aren't. If you're going to understand anything about putting your child in a charter, that's the bare minimum that you need to grasp.

http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/01/more-hard-charter-lessons.html

Here is the thing, I didn't write above, and the author who did, Peter Greene of the Curmuducation blog wasn't even talking about the Scholar Academy, he was writing about two charter schools that just failed in Indiana. What he wrote however fits perfectly for whats happening here and in so many other communities.

All across the nation charter schools are opening in communities promising great things on the front end, making profits on the back end and then closing down leaving communities, families and students in a lurch. Over 270 have closed in Florida alone, on average one every three weeks.

It's just not right what Charter Schools ave become.

Systemic problems in Duval County Public Schools

From a reader:

Unfortunately this (the problems with the roll out of Edgenuity) is symptomatic of a much deeper problem, which is the managerial style of the Chief of Academic Services.

He has insisted that academic directors route all communication with principals through him. That means directors send him essential information schools need to know, but since that is too much for one person, communications from directors to principals sit for weeks on his desk waiting for his attention.

Decisions are held up until the last minute, which leaves schools scrambling to comply. People are left out of the loop so they cannot perform their functions of improving what happens at the school. One wonders if the problems at the top are merely growing pains or simply the manifestation of the good ol' boy/girl network that has plagued this district for decades.

As the big cheeses try to out maneuver each other, squeeze out lower levels for their own people, the schools and the students suffer.

One wonders if Dr. Vitti is in charge anymore or whether a palace coup has taken place. NV is himself known for sudden, unanticipated decisions that roil communities and their schools. Remember open enrollment? The conceit is that they can turn the organization on a dime. The problem is DCPS is huge. The captain of the Exxon Valdez thought the same, but when they woke him up 20 minutes before his oil tanker hit the reef, it was already too late. The ship's momentum carried it into the worst environmental disaster of our lifetime.

Other large districts are giving teacher raises, will Duval?

Without comment, the Pasco County School Board unanimously approved a 2014-15 contract for teachers and school-related employees on Tuesday.

The deal provides average raises of 3 percent.
 http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/pasco-school-board-approves-new-teacher-employee-contract/2214434

Most teachers in Orange County's public schools will get raises of $3,100 or $2,000 this year, plus an extra $1,000 bonus, according to an agreement reached Thursday between district administrators and the local teachers union.

The two-year salary agreement provides an average pay hike of 6.3 percent to more than 13,000 teachers. It also boosts starting teacher pay by $1,000 this year to $38,500 and then by another $500 the next school year.Teachers who were employed last year will get the $1,000 bonus because in the 2013-14 school year,
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-teacher-raises-orange-schools-post.html

Look at the raises Orange County is giving. Where i would love it I don't expect anything like that but if other large counties can give raises then Duval should be able to do so too!

Poverty, the class size amendment and giving money to for profit charter schools.

These are the letters I sent to the states papers today. I would urge you to send something similar as well. If more people know, more people will want better.

Poverty

According to the Washington Post 59 percent of Florida’s public school children are considered low income, that’s eligible for free and reduced lunch. Poverty is also the number one measurable statistic in education, quite simply those kids that live in poverty don’t do as well as those that don’t.

How does stripping teachers of work protections address poverty? How do charter schools and vouchers? Does Common Core make a student feel less hungry, safer and get their parents more involved? What about high stakes testing or blame the teacher evaluations? How do any of those things effect poverty? The answer is they don’t.

Instead of blaming teachers for not being able to overcome the dehibilitating effects of poverty, maybe we should thank them for what they do because many of our children would undoubtedly be much worse off without them. Also maybe it is time we stopped ignoring poverty or treating it like an excuse and in their place put in things like wrap around services for our neediest children, a longer school years so children can have more time to learn what they need and less time to lose it and smaller classes so children can get the individual attention they need.

As I see it, we can either try and mitigate poverty or we can continue to blame the teaching profession and double down on reforms that have failed.  

Giving Money to for profit charter schools

 Governor Rick Scott wants to give the states 600 charter schools 100 million dollars in maintenance and construction money while giving the states 3,000 plus public schools a fraction of that amount. His reasoning being that public schools have other ways to raise money for maintenance and construction costs. There are two important things the governor is leaving out.

The first is public school districts are run by elected officials who have had their power increasingly eroded by the state. Charter schools however which are increasingly being authorized by the state board of education after being rejected by local districts are run independently and as a result don’t answer to tax payers. Since that is the case why should they have the ability to raise money from them?

Next many charter schools are run by for profit management companies and for chains like Mavericks and Charter Schools USA and a few other business is good. These chains take home millions and millions in management fees. Why don’t they use that money to pay for maintenance and construction costs? Some people might not like nor appreciate public schools but they all spend local and nobody is getting rich. Charter schools often siphon money out of communities and some of their owners are becoming incredibly wealthy.

Over 270 charter schools have taken public money and closed in Florida leaving families and communities in a lurch and these schools have wasted untold millions of dollars. It’s my bet that if the governor canceled his 100 million dollar give away that no charter schools would close shop, the reason being is even without the money they are already taking home a lot. The bottom line is the governor should not be giving millions of dollars to for profit companies whose profits show they don’t need it.

The chair of the state board and the class size amendment

Gary Chartrand a grocer by trade is the chairman of the state board of education and he is not a fan of the class size amendment. At the last state board of education meeting he said, “It's a bad law. The intentions are right, but the end results. Your electives get filled up with more kids than they should." He would rather see the legislature pass a new law so schools and districts would be able to average the sizes of their classes, rather than comply with the law which is something the people of Florida rejected in 2010.

Here is another option, how about instead of repeatedly gutting the class size amendment the Florida Legislature properly fund it which is something I have to believe the people of Florida assumed they would do when they passed the amendment.

Smaller classes by the way, not merit pay, charters, vouchers, VAM scores, Common Core and high stakes testing, is one of the few education reforms that has evidence that says it works

Since Gary Chartrand has never taught or worked for a school he might not know it, “but give me five or ten more students and I will be a better teacher”, said no teacher ever. Maybe if he were an educator he would have a greater appreciation for the amendment but either way I would urge him and the state legislature to follow the will of the people and properly fund it rather than water it down again.

Gary Chartrand just doesn't understand the class size amendment.

Gary Chartrand the grocer turned chair of the education board sent his kids to an exclusive private school that extolled the virtue of small and intimate classes, and no this was not the type of private school that takes the vouchers he also is trying to sell.

Gary Chartrand also thinks the class size amendment is a bad law and I have to be honest with the way the Florida legislature had gutted it, it is just a shell of its former self.

From the Tampa Times: "It's a bad law," Chartrand said. "The intentions are right, but the end results... Your electives get filled up with more kids than they should."

Chartrand wants schools to be able to submit their average class size instead of the figures for each individual classroom. (Charter schools already have that flexibility because they receive fewer capital dollars than traditional public schools.)

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/will-class-size-be-on-the-table-in-2015/2213645

There is course anther option and that is to fund the amendment like the people of Florida expected them to do but of course since Chartrand never taught a day in his life and he wants to starve public schools that option hasn't occurred to him.

Rick Scott wants to give 100 million to for profit companies.

Oy vey, what is with rich guys helping other rich guys get richer at the expense of the middle class and poor? For years the state of Florida has given money to charter schools above and beyond the FTE money, the money they get per pupil. This year Scott wants to give the approximate six hundred charter schools in Florida one hundred million dollars. That money won't go to maintenance and constriction but instead to pad their bottom lines.

Much of this money will go to for-profit chains like Charter Schools USA or Mavericks, for profit friends and the profits have been good. Why are we giving money to for profit companies and I want to remind you that nobody is forced to create a charter school. I doubt many of these charter schools would throw up their hands and go away if they didn't get this give away.

If a charter school is a legitimate non-profit and there are some then that is a different story but unfortunately to more are more concerned about their bottom lines which the governor through this give away is about to make a lot more lucrative.

At the same time charter schools are getting these construction and maintenance funds  public schools of which there is over 3,000 have seen their piece of the pie reduced to nothing but crumbs.

We should all be outraged by this.

 To read more click the link: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/scott-recommends-100-million-for-florida-charter-schools/2213907

The percentage of children living in poverty by state.

Before we blame teachers and take away their work protections, and before we try experimental education reforms, common core, and before we out source our children's education to for profit charter schools or voucher schools that lack accountability, maybe we should tackle poverty.