@#$% you Delores Bar Weaver! There I said it and I feel better for having done so.

Delores Bar weaver, wife of former Jags owner Wayne Weaver has been in the news a lot recently.

She gave a million dollars to United Way, a freaking million dollars.

From the Times Union:

Jacksonville philanthropist Delores Barr Weaver has donated $1 million to the United Way of Northeast Florida’s endowment, which provides a sustainable revenue source to the nonprofit and its partners.

The donation is the first endowment gift of that size in the nonprofit’s 94-year history, according to the agency.

“United Way of Northeast Florida is a critical leader in addressing the most challenging conditions of our community,” Weaver said. “I am proud to support United Way’s efforts for generations to come, knowing the lives of local children and families will be irrevocably transformed.”

https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20180906/delores-barr-weaver-boosts-united-way-of-northeast-florida-endowment-with-1-million-donation

Then she is fighting against human trafficking too,

From CBS 47

The Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center is at the helm of Florida’s new Open Doors Outreach Network; when a survivor is identified, they’re immediately paired with a survivor mentor, a regional advocate and a clinician.

https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/florida-has-3rd-highest-number-of-human-trafficking-cases-prosecuted-in-federal-court/849179616

And she's advocating for girl empowerment too,

Annual See the Girl Summit

The purpose of the See the Girl Summit is to challenge participants to see how they can shift and shape the ways in which girls are treated, elevate the voices of girls, and those who identify as female, through research, advocacy and programming. Participants include juvenile justice professionals, mental health professionals, advocates, education system, child welfare system, students, health care professionals, researchers, philanthropists, parents/caregivers, volunteers, and concerned citizens.  The summit is building community through highlighting innovative programming, advocacy, and research that challenges individuals to shift how they respond to girl

https://www.seethegirl.org/summit/

Is she about to die? I don't ask this glibly because this is a lot of movement on her part and she hasn't been in the news this much since somebody stole her Beanie Baby collection over a decade ago?

You know what? I am for girl empowerment, against human trafficking and then United way is a great cause but despite all that $#@^ you Delores Bar Weaver.

She also gave a grand to Dave Chauncey, a thirty year old recent transplant to Jacksonville and a former teach for america teacher runnng for school board over a life long resident, graduate of DCPS schools and current teacher, Charlotte Joyce for the district 6 school board race. That's unacceptable and just goes to show she's just throwing money out there and has no idea what she is doing.

Human trafficking is detestable but she gets no props from me because her husband underpaid his employees and over charged his customers resulting in a personal fortune.

Girl empowerment s important but she gets no props from me if she is willing to support candidates who want to privatize our schools and minimize our teachers.

United Way is a great cause too but she gets no props from me if she has chosen to be so uniformed about what our schools need, which is a leader, not a dupe of privatization.  

These rich people, they disgust me, she disgusts me and I know that is harsh. She throws money at a problem when it's us as a society that should have the resources to fix it without her but because the wealthy are so insatiable they have crafted a society where only they benefit and then they are thought of as heroes for throwing nickels at the problems that have mostly came about because society doesn't have the resources to deal with them because we have chosen to make her and her husband filthy rich instead. 

Delores is not the hero of the story. She's the villain and that's because society has been tricked into thinking the wealthy are great when what we need is a society with the resources to solve the problems on our own.  

%$@# you Delores, we don't need your money, or if things were they way they should be we wouldn't.

Why I sometimes hate DTU, endorsement edition

First let me say I think DTU has done as well as humanly possible on economic issues, hands down, though I have been disappointed on how we have given in on the treatment of veteran teachers, especially when it has to do with surpluses.

Then as somebody who has been in trouble multiple times with the district I can say unequivocally the union has always been there and fought for me. I can't express in words how appreciative I am of them.

So with that out of the way I can't stress how disappointed I am that the union choose to co endorse businessman Nick Howland and former teacher Elizabeth Andersen.

The union co endorsing Howland and Andersen is like rooting for Florida and Georgia when they play, or wanting to vote for DeSantis and Gillum, it doesn't make any sense.

Howland has taken money from people who would drown the union in a bath tub given the chance while Andersen is a former teacher who was in our classrooms.

Howand is the candidate of charter schools and alternate teaching routes while Andersen is the candidate of teachers and public schools yet somehow they are the same?

Bull Sh^t!

I know what the union did and that's they hedged heir bet, which is a huge lack of leadership. Does DTU think Howand is ever going to support union positions? If so I have some swampland, prime real estate I would like to sell them cheap.

The union has sacrificed the moral high ground on the chance it might not alienate a future board member rather than go all in on the perfect candidate for the job and it makes me ill.

I am a union guy and will be one tomorrow too, but this is so disappointing.

At the end of the day if you care about public education there is only one candidate in district 2 and that's Elizabeth Andersen, how the union, or more accurately the small percentage of the union that does the endorsing didn't see that,  is beyond me.

There really is no choice between DeSantis and Gillum if you support public schools.

Electing Andrew Gillum will stop the assault on public education and school teachers, but it won't reverse the decades of damage done. To do that we also need to elect senators and representatives to Tallahassee that care about public education as well.

If you care about public education then you only have one choice for governor and that is Andrew Gillum. DeSantis would undoubtedly keep up the attacks on teachers and continue to privatize our schools despite the fact evidence overwhelmingly says it has been a disaster.



We can turn things around or we can continue the republicans plan of the last two decades.

Teachers rally around Elizabeth Andersen candidate school board district 2

By John Meeks

With a $62 million budget deficit, our school district has been forced to make painfully difficult decisions, including ending middle school block scheduling and cutting schools' faculty.  Whatever our austerity, however, I hope that our school board commits to increased mental health services for our students - and even redoubles their efforts.  

I know that naysayers would write off mental health services as superfluous to essential instruction.  To them, I would say that mental illness should be taken as seriously as we insist on students being vaccinated.   

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 80 percent of children with a diagnosable anxiety disorder and 60 percent of children with diagnosable depression are not getting treatment.  

If public schools are to be held accountable for students' learning gains and responsible for their safety, should they not be allowed to assist with handling obstacles to learning such as depression and anxiety?

Unlike our weekly school nurse visits where I can store a first aid kit in my file cabinet for students who may be injured four days out of the week, I do not have such easy means of attending to a student whose depression or anxiety is getting in the way of their learning while tending to classes with up to 30 students.

Having worked with children in the Beaches community for over 15 years, it is my hope that Elizabeth Andersen is elected to the Duval County School Board.  I appreciate that she sees a connection between the mental health of our youth and preventing school violence.    

There is nothing unprecedented in our approach to the issue.  Public schools were a central front in the war against polio - a war that we won.  Today's battle to heal the minds of our children can also be won if we commit to it.  

Becki Couch implores Tallahassee to stop attacking public education and for people to vote for pro public ed candidates

We are going to miss Mrs. Couch when she leaves the school board. She started slow but during her second term she has been a fierce defender and advocate of pubic ed. We are also really going to miss her if she is replaced by Dave Chauncey, the privatizers dream candidate. On a Facebook post  Mrs. Couch let her feelings about the upcoming election be known.

Via Fcebook

All of these (air condition units, old lap tops and a failing copier machine) are paid out of capital funds. 

Our legislature has reduced the amount school boards can levy from 2 mil to 1.5 mil. That resulted in a loss of $36 million every year since 2010. 

They also kept the required local effort flat which does not allow for school districts to benefit from rising property values. 

They gave over 50% of PECO taxes to charters 600 schools versus over 4,000 district schools. 

To top it off they now require school districts to share what little amount they have in property taxes with charters that are privately owned and for profit run. 

All of this occurred within the last 8 years. 

It’s time to demand better from politicians in Tallahassee. Parents and teachers must unite to demand public education is no longer the whipping post.

DTU and the district come through for teachers frozen out of Teacher Lead Money

This was in my inbox

Classroom Supply Assistance Money Agreement

Eligible classroom teachers were paid classroom supply assistance money on the September 28th paycheck. The State requires that teachers have, in hand, a current teaching certificate in order to receive the award. Because of that requirement, many classroom teachers, who otherwise would have been eligible, did not receive the funds because Tallahassee has fallen behind in processing certificates.

DTU filed a grievance after being notified that some teachers would not receive the money. These teachers were ineligible through no fault of their own. They had submitted their paperwork in time as required, but the DOE didn’t process the paperwork in a timely fashion. After conversations between DTU and DCPS, an agreement was reached to allow the 4 teachers to be paid the classroom supply assistance money of $325 after their certificates are received. In order to be eligible, those impacted classroom teachers must have completed the required application for their certificate to cover the 2018-2019 school year and must have been working for DCPS in an eligible position by September 1, 2018.

The Duval Certification Office will conduct a bi-weekly review of the DOE’s database for certificate issuance of those pending applications. Human Resources will provide the Payroll Office with a list of those teachers whose certificates were issued during the reviews so the classroom supply assistance money can be processed for the next available regular payroll period.

I have to say this is good news, but I also have to say I am still steamed teachers found out they weren't getting it when they looked at their checks and for days were told so sorry.

The district has to treat its teachers better, they deserve it.

How many ways can the district $@% teachers? Let me count.

I am being told that new teachers and veterans that applied for re-certification last year have lost out on the teacher lead money. 320 dollars that many had already spent to out fit their rooms and buy supplies.

They are being told with a shrug by the district that their certification process has not been completed by the state and thus they aren't eligible. It doesn't matter that they had their paper work in, in plenty of time or that they had already spent their own money.

What makes the situation worse is there was no heads up, that they weren't going to get the money, they only discovered it after they opened their checks and the the money wasn't there. What a slap in the face that must have been to professionals who dedicate their lives to the service of children.

Then there is no make up pay time either, when the state finally does complete their certifications because of some state imposed arbitrary deadline, that teachers missed through absolutely no fault of their own.

I find this unacceptable.

People wonder why there is a teacher shortage and fewer people are going into the field well I say the answer is obvious, its because of the continuous parade of sleights like this one, accept this sleight hurts teachers already precarious bank accounts.

Then in Jacksonville I think about all the money wasted recently with things like the QEA that sent 5 million to Teach for America that didn't go towards salaries, benefits, training or classrooms. Couldn't we use that money to make up this travesty fostered on teachers already so put upon by the state?

Our teachers deserve so much better and if the state isn't going to do what is right then the district should use its reserve funds to do so, rather than continue with the shrug and insincere "so sorry" that teachers have been currently getting from DCPS.

%$#^!!!

Student Loan Forgiveness for Public Service is a sham

99 percent of applicants have been rejected but more than that in a few.

I know I am going to hear it, you took the loans and you knew you would have to pay them back. That is true but when I took the loans things were a lot different. I am in year 18 as a teacher, when I started as a teacher an 18th year teacher was making an inflation adjusted 5 grand more than I am making now. 5 grand.  You extrapolate that out over the last ten years when teachers salaries started going backwards in the terms of actual dollars, that could be as much as 30 thousand or a huge dent in the student loans that at this rate I will never be able to pay back.

To share my tragic story, I borrowed 55, paid back over 20 and now owe 63. I just turned fifty, and this is a debt I will never ever repay, unless I received some loan forgiveness and as somebody who has spent 18 of the last 19, the last 13 straight in inner city classrooms working with disabled children, you would think I would be a prime candidate, sadly however it turns out nobody is a prime candidate.

From Forbes,

 According to data released by the U.S. Department of Education, only 96 borrowers have qualified for public service loan forgiveness as of June 30, 2018. Only 1% of applications for loan forgiveness have been approved.

A total of 28,081 unduplicated borrowers submitted a total of 32,601 applications for public service loan forgiveness. Some borrowers submit more than one application because the forgiveness is per loan, not per borrower.

Of these applications, 28,913 (89%) have been processed and 3,688 are still pending.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/markkantrowitz/2018/09/20/very-few-borrowers-qualify-for-public-service-loan-forgiveness/#6d216bc32a6f

Now they will give you a lot of reasons for the applications being declined but why do they make it so difficult?

Teach for America teachers get close to ten grand for two years service, which is only ten grand more than I have gotten for 18 years and who wants to bet their hoops are a lot easier to get through.

The teaching profession is being beaten down not that I think they are the only ones that should be eligible, the police, firemen, the military, social workers, and many, many others, lets put them all in the program and make it a lot easier too. Hell we give so much to millionaires and billionaires its time the people doing the work making sure society doesn't go off the rails, get a piece of the pie.

Right now it's nothing but a sham.

Teachers should vote for one interest, their own. Gillum is teacher's only choice for governor

Some teachers when talking about the upcoming election say, well I am not a single issue voter, when they explain why they are voting for DeSantis.

It's like pulling teeth having them explain what their other issues are, but it generally boils down to abortion, guns (quite the juxtaposition there) and some muddled scream about socialism.

The thing is it blows my mind that the republican are so against abortion when they are so anti children and how they are against gun regulations that would keep us all safer. They say it won't prevent criminals from getting guns, well if that is the case then it won't prevent them from getting guns either. So that leaves socialism.

If you think raising the corporate rate two percent to pay for a teacher raise is socialism, then you are to dumb to vote let alone be a teacher.

Now I get it there may be a ton of other reasons why somebody would vote republican, and if you are all about dumping pollution into our waterways, or have been making bank on charter schools, I get why you would vote for DesSantis but for me I am going to vote for one interest and that is my own.  

You see I need a raise. I don't need to be rich, I don't need to be upper middle class, but I do need to replace my tires and not worry that if I break a crown I won't be regulated to eating ramen noodles for a week and a half.

I would also like my job to not hang in the balance based on VAM scores, a ridiculously complicated formula created to measure reproductive rates in livestock, that doesn't take into account things like attendance and poverty. 

I would also like some autonomy back. My creativity and flexibility have been stripped away as I have been forced to teach to a test. 

Then I would also like to work in a state that appreciated what I did, rather than think of me as an easily replaceable cog, or that I could be replaced by a chimp who can hit play on a VCR. 


Out of the two candidates, one, Gillum wants to make things better for teachers and public education, while despite overwhelming evidence of their failure, DeSantis wants more privatization, choice.  

From WJCT,

The Democratic and Republican candidates for governor on Tuesday launched competing plans to improve Florida’s schools. 

In a news conference in Tallahassee, Democrat Andrew Gillum defended his proposal, first announced in January, to provide a minimum $50,000 starting salary for teachers by increasing the state corporate-income tax by $1 billion.

Republican Ron DeSantis released a detailed education plan, including a measure that would require 80 percent of school funding to be spent in classrooms and not on administration. He said the plan could help boost teacher pay.

In a clear difference with Gillum, DeSantis also said he would work to expand education “choice” programs, including the use of corporate tax credits that sent more than 108,000 students to private schools in the last year.

DeSantis credited the voucher-like programs for Florida’s recent success in national testing measures, including the National Assessment of Education Progress, and for its rising high school graduation rate.

Gillum vowed to end “the voucherizing of the education system” that began under former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.

“We’ve got to begin to bring that to conclusion,” Gillum said. “It’s been 20 years of the underfunding, the defunding of the public (school) system, which still educates over 90 percent of our kids."

http://news.wjct.org/post/desantis-gillum-offer-sharply-different-school-plans

Hmm there is a big difference between would and could and a big difference between Florida will finally support public education and more of the same.

I am going to vote for what is best for me personally, but I am also glad that would also benefit millions of children, hundreds of thousands of teachers and school personnel, and the state as well.

Here is the thing, we can't just vote for Gillum, we have to vote representatives and senators who care about public education too.

Let them sleep, it's past time to change high school start times.

Last week tragedy hit DCPS as a West side High student was gunned down on the way to his bus stop at 6:15 in the morning. The quick thinking and actions of his bus driver, picking him up and rushing him to a fire station saved the young man's life. 

https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/local/data/crime/westside-high-student-boards-bus-after-being-shot-in-chest-while-walking-to-bus-stop/77-596122835 

There is a lot to cover there but this piece isn't about the senseless violence, instead it's about the time the young man was shot.

Why did we have this young man walking to a bus stop at 6:15 in the morning. When did this young man and thousands like him have to get up? 5:30, maybe 5:00? 

When I worked at Ed White most of us walked around in a haze until 9:00 or so and I meant to say most of us, teachers and students alike, victims of a system that keeps us chronically sleep deprived, which is bad for everyone but especially bad for teenagers. 

From UCLA Health,

Teens are so full of potential, so full of life, so...sleepy. Research shows that most teens do not get the sleep that they need on a daily basis. Each person has their own need for sleep. This need may vary from one person to another. Teens are at an important stage of their growth and development. Because of this, they need more sleep than adults. The average teen needs about nine hours of sleep each night to feel alert and well rested.

Puberty is a time when your body begins to go through many changes. It is the stage of life when you become physically able to reproduce sexually. There are many signs that show when this process is underway. Girls see their breasts develop and have their first menstrual period. Boys start to grow facial hair and hear their voices begin to deepen. Girls have always begun to enter the stage of puberty earlier than boys. Typically, this is between the ages of 10 and 11. Boys usually enter puberty a couple years later. Today, some girls begin to show signs of puberty as early as 7 or 8 years old.

One change in the body during puberty is closely related to how you sleep. There is a shift in the timing of your circadian rhythms. Before puberty, your body makes you sleepy around 8:00 or 9:00 pm. When puberty begins, this rhythm shifts a couple hours later. Now, your body tells you to go to sleep around 10:00 or 11:00 pm.

The natural shift in a teen's circadian rhythms is called "sleep phase delay." The need to sleep is delayed for about two hours. At first, teens may appear to be suffering from insomnia. They will have a hard time falling asleep at the usual time. While they begin going to sleep later, they still need an average of nine hours of sleep at night. Because most teens have to wake up early for school, it is important for them to go to bed on time. If they go to bed late, they will be unable to get the sleep that they need. This change is a normal part of growing up. With some extra care, teens will quickly adjust to the new sleep schedule of their bodies.

If teens resist or ignore this change, they will make this time of transition very hard on their bodies. They will only hurt themselves by staying up too late at night doing homework or talking with friends. Using a lot of caffeine or nicotine will also make it hard for a teen to get quality rest. At the end of the school week, many teens are worn out from all the sleep they missed. They think that sleeping in much later on the weekend will help them catch up. This only throws their body clocks off even more. It will be even harder for them to fall asleep and wake up on time when the new school week begins.

Research shows that most teens do not get the sleep that they need on a daily basis. ... Teens are at an important stage of their growth and development. Because of this, they need more sleep than adults. The average teen needs about nine hours of sleepeach night to feel alert and well rested.

https://www.uclahealth.org/sleepcenter/sleep-and-teens

If this is the case, if kids need more sleep and need to wake up later then why do we start them behind the 8 ball? How much productivity and potential are we wasting because we insist on doing things the way we did when we didn't know any better?

From Health Line,

Early start times can negatively impact the health of young students in several ways. So why aren’t more schools shifting their schedules?

Research on ideal school start times has been around for decades, with numerous studiesfinding a correlation between later school start times and better sleep, improved attendance, decreased tardiness, less falling asleep in class, better grades, and fewer motor vehicle crashes.

It’s not a matter of coddling kids who don’t want to wake up on time for school.

It’s about a quantifiable difference in health, school performance, and safety that later school start times have been shown to make.

In fact, the evidence is so compelling that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Sleep Association (ASA), the American Psychological Association (APA), and the American Medical Association (AMA) have all released statements encouraging districts to make the transition to later start times.

Most recommendations indicate that schools shouldn’t start any earlier than 8:30 a.m.

Yet, across the United States, many schools continue to ring that first bell at 7:30 a.m. and earlier.

So, if later start times are healthier for students, why aren’t more districts making the change?

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/early-school-start-times-bad-for-kids-health

Even the CDC says schools should start later,

Adolescents who do not get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight (1); not engage in daily physical activity (2); suffer from depressive symptoms (2); engage in unhealthy risk behaviors such as drinking, smoking tobacco, and using illicit drugs (2); and perform poorly in school (3). However, insufficient sleep is common among high school students, with less than one third of U.S. high school students sleeping at least 8 hours on school nights.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6430a1.htm

The worst part of my job, I mean other than the pay, and the constant disrespect and devaluation of my profession by Tallahassee, okay the third worst part of my job is I get up at 5:30 every morning, I have been doing it for 8 years and I have never gotten used to it and I don't think I ever will. If it's hard on me it has to be even harder on my kids whose bodies are still growing and developing.  

It's doable to, at least Hillsborough county thinks so as their high school start time in 8:30.

It's time we caught up with the times and stopped sleep walking through the day.

Here are a couple more resources explaining why sleep for our students is so important.

https://www.startschoollater.net/wake-up-calls-fast-facts.html

https://www.startschoollater.net/whats-the-big-deal.html

https://www.businessinsider.com/school-start-times-are-finally-getting-pushed-back-2017-8